


LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 






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Physiological 



Correspondences 



BY 



JOHN WORCESTER 




BOSTON : 
MASSACHUSETTS NEW-CHURCH UNION 

169 Tremont Street 



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Copyright, i8Sq 
By John Worcester 



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CONTENTS 






Introduction i 

The Lips, Tongue, and Teeth ...... 3 

The Saliva 27 

The (Esophagus 37 

The Stomach 41 

The Intestines 57 

The Mesentery 75 

The Liver 86 

The Spleen and the Pancreas 108 

The Omentum 122 

The Supra-renal Capsules 131 

The Kidneys 136 

The Peritonaeum • . 144 

The Heart and the Lungs 151 

The Nose 173 

The Organs of Speech 191 

The Pleura 205 

THe Diaphragm 212 

The Muscles in General . 218 



CONTENTS 



The Bones 221 

The Cartilages 224 

The Skin 226 

The Hair 245 

The Hands 250 

The Feet 265 

The Ear 273 

The Eye 293 

Generation and Regeneration 317 

The Brain 370 



INTRODUCTION, 



1 r I ^HE states of spirits and angels, with all 
-■- their varieties, can in no wise be under- 
stood without a knowledge of the human body ; for 
the Lord's kingdom is like a man." (S. D. 1145^.) 
" That heaven as a whole is like one man is an 
arcanum not yet known in the world ; but in heaven 
it is most certainly known. To know that, and the 
specific and particular things concerning it, is the 
chief of the intelligence of the angels there ; very 
many things also depend upon it, which without 
that as their general principle do not enter dis- 
tinctly and clearly into their minds." (H. H. 59.) 
" The chief of the intelligence which angels have 
is to know and perceive that all of life is from the 
Lord, and that the whole heaven corresponds to 
His Divine Human, and consequently that all angels, 
spirits, and men correspond to heaven ; also to know 
and perceive how they correspond. These are the 
chief things of the intelligence in which angels are 
above men ; from these they know and perceive in- 
numerable things which are in the heavens, and 
hence also those which are in the world." (A. C. 

4318.) 



INTRODUCTION. 



The correspondence of the whole heaven with 
the Divine Human, and of individual men with the 
heavens, is the subject of these studies. 



THE LIPS, TONGUE, AND TEETH. 



'THO the lips is assigned the three-fold duty of 
expressing the thoughts and feelings to the 
sight by means of their motions and changes of 
form ; of modifying and articulating the voice, and 
thus communicating the activities of the mind to 
the ear ; and of receiving and drawing in the food 
by which the body is nourished. To the last use 
we will attend first, leaving the others till we have 
studied the correspondence of the lungs and of 
the face. 

The use of the lips in receiving food is most 
evident in infancy, during the period in which 
nourishment is obtained by sucking. Afterwards, 
in drinking, they have a similar duty through the 
whole of life. In these operations the lips apply 
themselves to the mother's breast, or to the cup, 
and in conjunction with the cheeks, tongue, and 
fauces, by alternate expansions and contractions, 



4 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

draw out the pliant food, and introduce it into the 
mouth. 

Such food needs no mastication ; the function 
of the lips is merely to draw it in and introduce 
it, and then it is received by the soft parts of the 
mouth, and is quickly conducted to its destination. 
The lips have a similar use in laying hold of and 
drawing into the mouth solid food that is pre- 
sented to them, and in caring for this they have 
the further duty, in cooperation with the cheeks 
and tongue, of pressing it between the teeth, and 
compelling it to submit to the grinding process by 
which its interior parts are opened and separated. 

It is, perhaps, worthy of mention also that on 
the inner surfaces of the lips are little glands, 
which begin the process of moistening and lubrica- 
ting the food, to aid in digestion and in its pas- 
sage to the stomach. Undoubtedly there are also 
absorbents, by which a small amount of the purest 
part of the food is taken at once into the circula- 
tion of the body, and introduced into its life and 
uses. 



THE LIPS, TONGUE, AND TEETH. 5 

To see the correspondence of these uses of the 
lips, on a grand scale and in perfection, we must 
think of the great community from which men 
derive their humanity, and which, because it re- 
ceives the Divine Influence immediately and in the 
greatest measure, Swedenborg calls the " Greatest 
Man." (See A. C. 3741.) 

This Greatest Man is the heavens. It includes 
all good men, recipients of good life from the 
Lord, who have lived upon any of the earths in 
the starry universe from the beginning of time. 
Of these, " the inhabitants of this world are very 
few comparatively, and almost as a drop of water 
in comparison with the ocean." (A. C. 3631.) 

Of this Greatest Man the Lord is the Life. It 
is formed to receive His life, and to live from 
Him ; and it is Man because He is Man. All its 
parts are human, and do human uses correspond- 
ing to the uses of the organs and members of the 
human body. 

The nourishment of the heavens is of two kinds : 
they receive an influence of love and wisdom, or 



6 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

of warmth and light, immediately from the Lord ; 
and they receive additions of new members from 
the earths. 

These two kinds of nourishment are compar- 
atively like the inflow of life from the soul into 
the human body, from which every particle of the 
body draws its gift of human life, and the addi- 
tions of new particles from the food. Both kinds 
of nourishment are necessary to useful activity. 
Continual inflow of spiritual life of course is nec- 
essary to those who in themselves are dead ; and 
frequent supplies of new experiences, new subjects 
of thought, new applications of truth, and new 
opportunities of use are also necessary, to those 
whose happiness is by their very constitution made 
to depend upon eternal progress. 

New things, necessary to the growth and happi- 
ness of the heavens, are as food supplied from 
the earths. Like food the comers from the earth 
must be received by the heavens, examined, sorted, 
instructed, and trained to heavenly states, as by a 
kind of digestion, before they can be assimilated ; 
and this is the function of the world of spirits. 



THE LIPS, TONGUE, AND TEETH. j 

" The life of man," Swedenborg says, "when he 
dies, and enters into the other life, is like food, 
which is received softly by the lips, and afterwards 
is passed through the mouth, fauces, and oesopha- 
gus into the stomach ; and this according to the 
nature derived from his works during the life of 
the body. Most are treated gently at first, for they 
are kept in the company of angels and good spirits ; 
which is represented in food that it is first softly 
touched by the lips, and afterwards tasted as to its 
quality by the tongue. 

"The food which is soft, in which is sweetness, 
[essential] oil, and spirit, is immediately received 
by the veins, and borne into the circulation ; but 
food which is hard, in which is bitterness and foul- 
ness, and little nutritiveness, is more hardly treated, 
and is cast down through the oesophagus into the 
stomach, where it is corrected by various methods 
and tortures. What is still harder, more foul, and 
worthless, is thrust into the intestines, and at length 
into the rectum, where first is hell, and at last is 
cast out, and becomes excrement. 

" Resembling this is the life of man after death. 
First man is kept in externals ; and because he had 
lived a moral and civil life in externals, he is with 
angels and good spirits. But afterwards externals 
are taken away from him, and then it appears what 



8 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

he was within as to thoughts and affections, and 
at length as to ends ; according to these his life 
remains. 

" As long as they are in this state, in which they 
are like food in the stomach, they are not in the 
Greatest Man, but are being introduced ; but when 
they are representatively in the blood, then they 
are in the Greatest Man." (A. C. 5175, 5176.) 

The angels, then, who softly receive man at his 
entrance into the spiritual world, who cooperate 
with the Lord in drawing him out of the world 
and introducing him into the spiritual world, are 
in the province of the lips. Perhaps we see some 
effect of their presence even before the moment 
of death, in those whose feelings and thoughts are 
strongly drawn towards the other world as the 
time of death comes near ; and especially in those 
for whom open vision of spiritual things, more or 
less distinct, produces an anticipation of the peace- 
ful gladness which we commonly see represented 
in the face after the natural life ceases. 

Swedenborg says that celestial angels, who be- 
long to the kingdom of the heart, come to a per- 



THE LIPS, TONGUE, AND TEETH g 

son at the time of death, and take charge of his 
affections and thoughts ; and that at their ap- 
proach an aromatic odor is perceived, and then all 
spij'its leave the person exclusively to their care. 
(H. H. 449.) 

The office of the lips and tongue, and of those 
in the corresponding provinces of the heavens, is 
twofold : they are organs of speech and organs 
for receiving food. As organs of speech their use 
is spiritual, and as organs for receiving food it is 
celestial. As Swedenborg writes, — 

" The tongue affords entrance to the lungs and 
also to the stomach ; thus it presents a sort of 
court-yard to spiritual things and to celestial things ; 
to spiritual things because it ministers to the lungs 
and thence to speech, and to celestial things be- 
cause it ministers to the stomach, which supplies 
aliment to the blood and the heart." (A. C. 4791.) 

It is noteworthy that the angels who first re- 
ceive man at death do not speak; but sit silently 
looking into his face, communicating their own 
affection. They apply themselves to him from 



IO PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

love of introducing him into the joys of heaven, 
and of adding new members to heavenly societies. 
From this love they hold his thought fixed upon 
the future life, and lead it by various happy things 
into as full sympathy with their own thought as is 
possible. Then the Lord separates him from the 
body and he awakes in the world of spirits. 

"Two or three times," Swedenborg writes in his 
Diary (" Minus," 4702), " I have been sent into the 
place where is the resurrection of the dead. It is 
known from this : that something balsamic is per- 
ceived from the dead when the Lord is present, 
and celestial angels. And it was said that the 
Lord is especially present there, and therefore also 
celestial angels are there ; because without such 
presence of the Lord, there would be no resurrec- 
tion of the dead." 

After he is raised up, if the new spirit belongs 
to the very few who by instruction in heavenly 
truth and by training in heavenly love and useful- 
ness are already prepared to enjoy the life of 
heaven, these angels receive him among them- 
selves, and by ways in their own societies, like 



THE LIPS, TONGUE, AND TEETH. n 

the absorbing vessels of the lips, and especially 
of the tongue, they introduce him at once into 
heaven, and lead him on the way to his permanent 
home. 

In this work the angels of the tongue and the 
cheeks cooperate with those of the lips. If the 
new spirits be interiorly open, gentle, and good, 
they are most kindly treated by the angels of 
these provinces. Those of the tongue, especially, 
delight to perceive the new varieties of goodness 
and truth which are introduced from the world, 
and are eager to convey the pleasing intelligence 
of their arrival, and if possible the spirits them- 
selves, to the societies which will be enriched by 
them ; for the tongue abounds in porous papillae, 
which erect themselves on the approach of food, 
to touch it, and to feel its quality ; and if there be 
in it that which is spirituous and aromatic, to ab- 
sorb it for the immediate benefit of the brain and 
the whole system.* "The angels love everyone, 

* The tongue " as an organ of taste signifies the natural percep- 
tion of good and truth; whereas the smell corresponds to spiritual 



12 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

and desire nothing more than to perform kind 
offices to all, to give them instruction, and to take 
them into heaven, in which consists their supreme 
delight." (H. H. 450.) 

The angels of all the societies desire to receive 
new members ; and being informed by the tongue 
of the advent of those who are suitable for their 
respective societies they prepare to welcome them. 
Their eagerness and desire excite appetite in all 
the intermediate receiving societies, and all com- 
bine to invite and guide the new spirits to their 
destination.* 

With such soft welcomes are good, open-minded 
spirits received, and especially is such kindly em- 
brace extended by angels to those who leave this 

perception; for the tongue tastes and relishes meats and drinks, and 
by meats and drinks are signified good and truth which nourish 
the natural mind." (A. E. 990.) 

* " Men, after death, as soon as they come into the world of 
spirits, are carefully distinguished by the Lord; the evil are imme- 
diately bound to the infernal society in which they were in the world 
as to their ruling love, and the good are bound immediately to the 
heavenly society in which they also were as to love, charity, and 
faith" (H. H. 427). "This is the case with all as to internals; but 
not yet as to externals." (497-) 



THE LIPS, TONGUE, AND TEETH 13 

world in infancy and childhood. No harsher treat- 
ment do they need than to be separated from evil 
spirits, and taken up at once into heavenly socie- 
ties, to be made wise with the wisdom of angels. 

The work of reception which we have been de- 
scribing is done in the province of the mouth of 
the Greatest Man, in what Swedenborg calls "the 
first state of man after death" (H. H. 491). And 
spirits who are interiorly open, and whose thoughts 
and feelings appear frankly, undergo no treatment 
less gentle than this. But with the greater part 
even of good men, at the present clay, the interiors 
have never been consciously opened. They have 
done good works, perhaps from good principles ; but 
they have attended, as others have, only to the 
appearances of their lives before men ; which, like 
the hulls and skins of various grains and fruits, 
must be broken up with some force, that their 
real life, their purposes and intentions as well as 
their outward acts, may be disclosed. This disclo- 
sure is necessary both for a fair judgment of the 
characters of the new spirits, and as the first step 



14 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



towards the separation of good from evil, either 
in the same or in associated persons. 

The love of introducing good spirits into heaven, 
and the love of perceiving the interior quality of 
new goodness and conveying a knowledge of it to 
the heavens, urge, therefore, the opening of the 
whole life of the new comers. We see an image 
of their operation in the action of the tongue and 
lips upon the food, which they press gently, sub- 
divide, and examine, and bring into contact with 
all the soft absorbing surfaces of the mouth. And 
if in this examination hard morsels are discovered 
which do not open to gentle pressure, these are 
quickly conducted between the teeth, by the pres- 
sure of which they are broken up, and all their 
contents disclosed for examination ; or, if they can- 
not be broken, they are rejected as worthless. So 
the angels who are in the love of receiving good 
spirits, and conducting them to heaven, presently 
lead those spirits whose interiors are closely con- 
cealed by externals into the province of other 
angels whose function it is to open the interior 
memory of the life. 



THE LIPS, TONGUE, AND TEETH. 



15 



These angels whose use is in some respects sim- 
ilar to that of the gates of pearl, in conjunction 
with the angels of the tongue, guard the way to 
the greater part of the world of spirits, and of 
heaven and hell. They know that all new comers 
are now to be judged, — not according to their pro- 
fessions, but their lives. They say to them, there- 
fore, " None are received here whose quality is not 
known ; and the quality of every one is known 
from his life ; now, how have you lived ? what 
good have you done ? what evil have you resisted ? 
and what evil have you done and what did you 
love to do and think ? " Thus they open the 
whole memory of the life. (H. H. 462.) 

No doubt many other simple truths or facts con- 
cerning the other life they hold and press home in 
the same way. They are not in themselves sensi- 
tive, except to the resistance of spirits to this open- 
ing. They deal simply with matters of fact. They 
do not judge of the quality of the things they dis- 
cover ; this is the duty of the tongue. Their 
work is, as warders, to compel those who approach 



1 6 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 

to show their true colors, to warn the tongue and 
lips if any are present w r ho will not do so, and 
to assist in shutting out such, and any others 
whose quality is too repugnant to the life of the 
Greatest Man. We are told by the Scriptures 
that some who are admitted will be spewed out 
of the mouth. No doubt some will be ejected 
with disgust as soon as their quality is perceived. 
Perhaps these are the lukewarm, who can be re- 
ceived neither in heaven nor in hell, but are be- 
neath the hells, in a state almost without life. 
(A. R. 204; A. E. 1 1 58.) 

There are some other particulars in regard to 
the action of the teeth which should be consid- 
ered before we leave them. The teeth hold the 
food, and bite it off ; in which they correspond to 
the truth that all men must die, and that the pur- 
pose of their life is to be prepared for heaven, 
and to be added to the heavens. Compared to 
the gentle drawing of all the thoughts and affec- 
tions towards heaven, inspired by the angels of 
the lips, this is stern teaching ; but it is neces- 



THE LIPS, TONGUE, AND TEETH. jj 

sary for those who cling to the world, and are un- 
willing to die. It is such truth as we apply to 
men to separate them from their worldly pursuits 
and attachments, and to turn them towards heaven. 
The angels of the incisors must influence us to 
do this. 

This is the duty of the twice four front teeth, 
which have no part in the grinding of food, but 
only in the breaking off. The next four teeth, 
called " canine," or "eye teeth," are, in man, much 
like the incisors, and join in their work ; adding, 
perhaps, a special duty of holding the food and, in 
the carnivora, of penetrating and rending it. 

Then come the bicuspids (2X4)? whose use it is 
to break or cut up the food into small pieces, 
ready for grinding ; and then the molars (2X4+4), 
which separate all the particles. 

As the incisors correspond to the truth that 
all must die and enter the spiritual world, the 
grinding teeth, in their several degrees, represent 
the further truth that there all are judged accord- 
ing to their works ; and that therefore the lives 



1 8 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

of all must there be opened and explored, to show 
their real quality. Such truth, also, we apply in 
the world to bring out the fitness or unfitness of 
men for various uses and positions in society. 

The teeth are in two sets, the upper and the 
lower. The upper are fixed in the head ; the 
lower, exactly similar in number and character, 
are fitted into the movable jaw, and press, each 
one against its correlative above. The upper 
teeth correspond to truth founded in the nature 
of the world they guard ; the lower to similar 
truth applied to the individual cases presented. 
The upper say to those who approach, " All men 
are created for life in the spiritual world ; there 
are none in heaven who have not once lived upon 
the earth, and there died." The lower add, "You 
also are born for the same end ; you too must 
die." The upper say, " Here all are judged by 
their life, by what they have done and what they 
have loved to do and to think." The lower con- 
tinue in turn, " You, too, are to be judged accord- 
ing to your lives ; now, what have you done, and 



THE LIPS, TONGUE, AND TEETH. jg 

what have you loved to do and to think ?" And 
thus they compel the opening of all the particulars 
of the life. 

They also have a delicate tact for hypocrisies 
and concealments ; just as the natural teeth have 
for even the smallest hard particles which come 
between them, and they feel just where the pres- 
sure is necessary. 

Swedenborg speaks of the teeth as correspond- 
ing to the "sensuals of the understanding' ' (A. R. 
435), or to truth held merely naturally and obedi- 
ently, without interior understanding. And the 
work of those who are in the teeth of the Greatest 
Man is not the work of intelligence, or of inte- 
rior perception ; it consists in strong compulsion, 
and is performed by those who hold Divine Truth 
firmly and uncompromisingly, but not intelligently. 
They who are in tender states cannot do this 
work ; but leave it to those whose life it is to 
insist upon submission to the rules. They are 
simple, honest doorkeepers, who admit all who 
present themselves for admission, on the one con- 



20 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 

dition that there shall be no concealment of who 
they are, or what they have done ; but their lives 
shall be open for judgment. 

Swedenborg often speaks of the disputes of the 
evil as sounding like gnashing of teeth ; because 
they hold literal truths or falsities in the mem- 
ory, and clash them together in a kind of clamor- 
ous argumentation (H. H. 575). The teeth in the 
hells seem to be related especially to the cruel, 
tearing teeth of the carnivora ; and their purpose 
is to injure others, and to claim all things that 
can minister to self-love and love of the world. 
The gnashing of the teeth is the angry clashing 
of assertions of fact, or of literal statements, by 
which they urge such claims against one another 
and against the Lord and the heavens. 

Of some who cause pain in the teeth, he says, 
" Hypocrites who have spoken holily of Divine 
things, with affection of love concerning the 
public and the neighbor, and testified what is 
just and right, and still have despised these things 
in their heart, and also laughed at them, when it 



THE LIPS, TONGUE, AND TEETH. 2 i 

was allowed them to flow into the parts of the 
body to which they corresponded from the oppo- 
site, produced pains in the teeth, and on their 
near presence so severe that I could not bear it " 
(A. C. 5720). Which appears to have been be- 
cause the truths which they held in the memory 
and produced from the memory were like teeth, 
and their interior contempt for them was like 
death to the life and support of the teeth. 

Again he says that " those who have been rich 
in the life of the body, and have dwelt in magnif- 
icent palaces, placing their heaven in such things, 
and have despoiled others of their goods under 
various pretences, without conscience or charity, 
. . . exhaled a sphere of fetor of teeth " (A. C. 
163 1). Which, apparently, was because with them 
a life of pleasures was substituted for a truly 
heavenly life, and the principles which insist upon 
interior exploration of those pleasures before they 
are received into the life were neglected and 
allowed to become foul and to decay. 

A similar consequence follows from the habit of 



22 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

thinking over things that seem pleasant, in an 
indolent fashion, like food retained in the mouth, 
and rolled with the tongue, without regard to its 
rightness or usefulness ; from which our principles 
decay, as the teeth do when not kept clean and 
bright. 

The pains and dangers which children pass 
through in cutting their teeth, correspond to the 
natural reluctance and difficulty in forming princi- 
ples by which apparently pleasant things are thor- 
oughly examined, and the evil resolutely rejected. 

A child's first principles are scarcely more than 
his parent's words, held without thought. These 
are succeeded by natural principles better under- 
stood, as the first set of teeth, lightly rooted, are 
replaced by those that are larger and firmer. 

When old people pass from the state of parents 
to that of grandparents, and leaving the disciplin- 
ary stage of life, pass again into a child-like state, 
they become indulgent, and lose their teeth spirit- 
ually as they do naturally. 

In this view, soundness of the teeth would cor- 



THE LIPS, TONGUE, AND TEETH. 23 

respond with the love of having the enjoyments 
of life thoroughly good ; especially with the love 
of thoroughly good work, and not of what merely 
appears well. And unsoundness of the teeth 
would correspond to content with good appear- 
ances, and work that will pass. 

The dentist's work, spiritually, is to point out 
the carelessness of such principles of judgment, 
and suggest what is necessary from principles of 
love to the Lord and the neighbor to make them 
sound. Such suggestions are like fillings of gold 
and silver. 

Artificial teeth seem like the conventional stand- 
ards which must replace the natural when they 
are gone. 

There is an influx from the heavens into man, 
and from every province of the heavens into the 
correlative province of man's mind and the cor- 
responding organ of his body. It is from this 
influx that his mind lives and loves and acts, and 
that the body also lives and performs its func- 
tions. The desire of the angels to receive new 



24 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



members, and introduce them into the uses and 
the happiness of the heavens, flows into our minds 
as a desire for the elements of which angelic 
spirits can be formed in us. It causes us to apply 
our minds to any source from which we can drink 
wisdom, and to drink it in for examination. It 
gives us an interest also in good works, from 
which we can get instruction and encouragement 
in regard to good life. It incites us to attend 
to these things, to receive them, taste them, be 
affected by the goodness of them, and to absorb 
this into our affections and lives. Therefore Swe- 
denborg says that the use which the tongue per- 
forms in tasting, absorbing, and preparing nutri- 
ment for the body, " corresponds to the affection 
for knowing, understanding, and being wise in 
truths." (A. C. 4795.)* 

That heavenly spirits are formed in us by thus 
receiving genuine wisdom and the goodness of 
wisdom is plain to every one. And it is also evi- 

* "Quapropter etiam sapientia, seu sapere, dicta est a sapore." 



THE LIPS, TONGUE, AND TEETH. 25 

dent that the influx of the angels' love of receiv- 
ing new angelic spirits must produce in us indi- 
vidually a desire for the heavenly elements of 
which such spirits are formed. 

In this influx all angels who belong to the 
provinces of the digestive organs combine ; and, 
indeed, in a general way, the whole heaven, since 
all angels desire to receive new brothers ; and 
this hunger of the whole heavens for new brothers 
flows into us, and is felt as a hunger for wisdom. 
Specifically, those in the province of the lips im- 
part to us the power of application to new truths ; 
those in the province of the tongue inspire the 
capacity for tasting and discerning the quality of 
new ideas, before we finally adopt them ; and 
those in the province of the gums and teeth, who 
cooperate so effectively with the tongue in its ex- 
plorations, inspire the desire to open the interior 
quality of whatever is presented, and to receive 
nothing that we do not thus know, and that does 
not agree with our life. 

We may hear thoughts which do not especially 



26 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

concern us, and may look at them with much or 
little interest, perhaps merely because others value 
them ; but not until we think of them as relating 
to us, and desire to receive them into our lives, 
and so apply our minds to grasp them and under- 
stand them, — not till then do we do that which 
is represented by taking food with our lips, masti- 
cating it with the teeth, and tasting it with the 
tongue. And then, if we assent and resolve to 
adopt it, we spiritually swallow it. Sometimes, 
also, people swallow what they do not understand, 
or even what they do not like, with very little 
mastication. 

Yet, as thorough mastication is essential to good 
digestion of food, so the thorough understanding 
of the knowledge of life which we receive is es- 
sential to its proper assimilation. 



THE SALIVA. 



r I "HE office of the salivary glands is to secrete 
a watery liquid which mingles with the food, 
softens and moistens it, and reduces it almost to 
a semi-fluid state, so that it passes easily through 
the fauces and the oesophagus to the stomach. 
The saliva has other subsidiary uses, which will 
be considered presently ; but this is the most im- 
portant. 

Water is, throughout the three kingdoms of 
nature, the vehicle of circulation ; it is the means 
of conveying into the veins of animals, the fibres 
of plants, and the minute interstices of the rocks, 
the materials needed for their nourishment and 
growth. 

As to its cleansing properties, water corresponds 
to the truth which distinguishes right from wrong. 
As to its nutritive and mobilizing properties, it 
corresponds to the same truth teaching what it is 



28 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

right to do, and thus giving the means of motion 
to those desires which, without such truth, would 
lie helplessly inert. 

The saliva, therefore, which is almost pure water, 
having only about one per cent, of solid material, 
represents the instruction first given to new spirits 
as to the world into which they have come, as to 
what it is allowable and possible for them to do, 
and as to the state of their friends who have gone 
before, — instruction which gives them freedom to 
go whithersoever they desire. 

The fluid is secreted by large glands lying be- 
hind and under the lower jaw, and under the 
tongue, which summon, according to their need, 
copious streams from the general circulation, which 
correspond to fresh information concerning the 
state and wants of the heavenly man and the 
world of spirits. 

The purer saliva, whose office is to mingle inti- 
mately with the food, to dissolve such portions as 
admit of ready solution, and convey them at once 
into the circulation, and to soften other portions 



THE SALIVA. 



to a semi-fluid condition so that they may easily 
pass to the stomach, corresponds specifically to in- 
struction concerning heaven and heavenly life, the 
purpose of which is to introduce immediately into 
heaven those who are fitted for it, and to assist 
others on the way to heaven. 

The viscid element of the sub-maxillary saliva, 
and still more evidently the mucus discharged by 
the follicles of the mouth, has for its specific office 
to lubricate the food, so that it may pass easily 
through the oesophagus to the stomach ; and cor- 
responds to instruction which serves to introduce 
spirits to societies in the world of spirits, where 
they remain for further preparation. The sali- 
vary glands correspond to societies of spiritual 
angels who love to acquire and communicate such 
instruction. 

In regard to this instruction, which, it will be 
observed, is given immediately after the spirit 
passes the province of the lips, we read as fol- 
lows : — 



3° 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



"When the celestial angels are with a resusci- 
tated person, they do not leave him, because they 
love every one ; but when the spirit is such that 
he can no longer be in company with the celestial 
angels, he desires to depart from them ; and when 
this is the case, angels from the Lord's spiritual 
kingdom come, by whom is given to him the use of 
light, for before he saw nothing, but only thought. 
. . . The angels are extremely cautious lest any 
idea should come from the resuscitated person but 
what savors of love ; they then tell him that he is 
a spirit. The spiritual angels, after the use of 
light has been given, perform for the new spirit all 
the offices which he can ever desire in that state, 
and instruct him concerning the things of the 
other life, but so far as he can comprehend them. 
But if he is not such as to be willing to be in- 
structed, the resuscitated person then desires to 
depart from the company of those angels ; but still 
the angels do not leave him, but he dissociates 
himself from them ; for the angels love every one, 
and desire nothing more than to perform kind 
offices, to instruct, and to introduce into heaven ; 
their highest delight consists in that. When the 
spirit thus dissociates himself he is received by 
good spirits, and when he is in their company, also, 
all kind offices are performed for him ; but if his 



THE SALIVA, 



31 



life in the world had been such that he could 
not be in the company of the good, then also he 
wishes to remove from them, and this even until 
he associates himself with such as agree altogether 
with his life in the world, with whom he finds his 
life, and then, what is wonderful, he leads a simi- 
lar life to what he led in the world. This begin- 
ning of man's life after death continues only for a 
few days." (H. H. 450, 451.) 

In the posthumous treatise concerning the "Last 
Judgment," pp. 125-133, we have the following 
account of the reception and instruction of new 
spirits : — 

" When a man after death comes into the spirit- 
ual world, which usually takes place on the third 
day after he has breathed his last, he appears to 
himself in a similar life to that in which he had 
been in the world, and in a similar house, room, 
and bed-chamber, in a similar dress and covering, 
and in similar companionship in the house ; if he 
was a king or prince, in a similar palace ; if a hus- 
bandman, in a similar cottage ; rustic things sur- 
round the one, splendid the other. This takes 
place with every one after death, for the purpose 
that death may not seem to be death, but a contin- 



32 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



uation of life, and that the last state of the natural 
life may become the first of the spiritual life ; and 
that from this he may go on to his goal, which will 
be either in heaven or in hell. . . . When new 
comers into the spiritual world are in this first 
state, angels come to them for the sake of wish- 
ing them a happy arrival, and at first are much 
amused in conversation with them, since they know 
that they do not then think otherwise than that 
they are still living in the former world. There- 
fore, they ask them what they think about the life 
after death ; and the new comers answer according 
to their former ideas ; some that they do not know ; 
some that they are ghosts or a kind of ethereal 
beings ; some that they are transparent, aerial 
bodies ; some that they are flying spectres, either 
in the ether and the air, or in the waters, or in 
the middle of the earth ; and some that souls like 
angels are in the stars ; some of the new comers 
deny that any man lives after death. After listen- 
ing to these replies, the angels say, ' Welcome ! 
we will show you something new w T hich you have 
not before known or believed, namely, that every 
man after death lives as man in a body exactly as 
he lived before.' To this the new spirits rejoin, 
' This is impossible ! Whence has he a body ? 
Does it not lie with all there is of it dead in the 



THE SALIVA. 



33 



grave ?' The angels laughingly answer, 'We will 
give you ocular proof of it.' And they say, 'Are 
you not men in perfect form ? Examine and feel 
yourselves ; and yet you have left the natural 
world. That you have not known this till now 
is because the first state of the life after death is 
exactly like the last state of the life before death/ 
Hearing this, the new guests are astonished, and 
exclaim from joy of heart, 'Thanks be to God that 
we are alive, and that death has not annihilated 
us.' I have very often heard new comers in- 
structed thus as to their life after death, and glad- 
dened by their resurrection." 

Then follow examples of instruction by the 
angels concerning the consummation of the age, 
the destruction of the world, and the end of the 
Church ; and, presently, leading the new spirits 
out, the angels showed them the Sun of Heaven, 
and beautiful representatives of the instruction of 
angels and spirits from the Lord in the Sun, and 
of the possible influx of Divine Truth also to man 
on the earth. And then also they showed how 
the evil spirits were multiplying in that time, be- 
fore the Last Judgment, and cutting off the light 
of heaven from the minds of men on the earth. 



34 



PHYSIOL O GICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



All these things are of the instruction given by 
angels to introduce new spirits into the life of 
the spiritual world. 

Those soluble portions of the food which are in 
a condition to be readily absorbed correspond to 
spirits who readily receive instruction concerning 
heaven and are in a state to conform to it at 
once. The portions not readily dissolved or ab- 
sorbed correspond to those who need more grad- 
ual initiation. 

The small amount of organic substance con- 
tained in the saliva has an important subsidiary 
use in beginning the preparation of some elements 
of food which are not yet ready for absorption. 
The sweetness of fruits is in a form that can be 
absorbed at once. But the sweetness of sugar- 
cane needs a chemical combination with a little 
more water, to be reduced to the same form. 
Starch and gum also, which are chemically akin 
to cane-sugar, need the same addition to become 
food like the sugar of fruit. And the organic 
substance in the saliva, by its very presence, stim- 



THE SALIVA. 



35 



ulates this chemical change, some portions of the 
sugar and the starch undergoing the change almost 
instantly upon coming in contact with it. The 
chemical union of a little more water with these 
substances can hardly correspond to anything else 
than the reception of a little necessary truth into 
life. And the organic substance from the glands, 
which stimulates this reception, seems to corres- 
pond w r ith the influence of angels who by encour- 
agement or by warning immediately open the eyes 
of some who are already in good to purer truth, 
and perhaps to humbler acknowledgment, than 
they had been in before. 

The slightly alkaline quality of the saliva prob- 
ably represents the checking of all self-assertion, 
and the enforcing of the acknowledgment that self 
is nothing, and the Lord everything, in this king- 
dom. 

By no means the whole of the soluble portion 
of the food is absorbed in the mouth ; a large part, 
dissolved or dissolving in the saliva, is carried into 
the stomach ; much of it goes even further, into 



3$ 



PHYSIOL O GICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



the intestines, before it is absorbed. And in cor- 
respondence with this, no doubt many new comers 
who are open to spiritual instruction, hasten first 
to the company of their former friends in the 
world of spirits, and by a longer way, and through 
various methods of preparation, are carried into 
heaven. 



THE CE SOPH AGUS, 



P^HROUGH the oesophagus there is a straight 
road from the mouth to the stomach. Its 
office is to conduct the food gently and properly 
from one province to the other. The food does 
not fall from the mouth into the stomach by mere 
force of its weight, — we can swallow upward 
nearly as well as downward ; as we do in drinking 
from a brook, and as the grazing animals con- 
stantly do. The oesophagus takes it in charge, 
and conducts it to the stomach with uniform mo- 
tion, warming and lubricating it by the way, and 
thus preparing it somewhat for digestion, and pre- 
venting its doing injury to the stomach by sudden 
blows or chills. Perhaps it should be mentioned, 
also, that in the oesophagus the food first receives 
the motion of the heart and lungs, which after- 
wards is a necessity to its life, as long as it i*s a 
part of the body. 

37 



33 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



The mouth is in the province of the head, 
which constitutes the third heaven ; the stomach 
is in the domain of the first or natural heaven ; 
and the heart and lungs belong to the second 
heaven (T. C. R. 119). By angels of the third 
heaven spirits are first received, that, at their in- 
troduction into the spiritual world, they may re- 
ceive all the care that the kindest and wisest of 
the angels can give ; and, further, that their qual- 
ity may be carefully discriminated by the most 
sagacious angels, through whom the whole heaven 
may be informed of their presence and quality, 
and exactly such care may be provided for them 
as they need. 

Still another advantage arising from the recep- 
tion of spirits by these angels, is, that the spirits 
of infants, and of others who have become inno- 
cent as infants, may be received by the shortest 
way into heaven, being spared unnecessarily harsh 
treatment, and carrying at once the treasures of 
their innocent lives to increase the happiness of 
the heavenly societies to which they belong. 



THE (ESOPHAGUS. 39 



But it is necessary for spirits in whom good is 
not yet freed from evil or falsity, and those in 
whom evil still assumes the cloak of piety and mo- 
rality, to have these elements of their natural char- 
acter thoroughly made known, and to pass through 
whatever discipline is necessary to make them 
homogeneous, before the good can be taken up 
into heaven or the evil cast down into hell ; and 
therefore such spirits pass from the care of angels 
of the third heaven, under the kind and wise 
direction of those of the second heaven, into the 
province of the stomach, on the natural plane. 

They do not remain long in company with 
angels of the second heaven. These serve as 
friendly guides and introducers ; also they initi- 
ate the new comers into the flow of thought and 
affection of the Greatest Man, which they them- 
selves receive with peculiar fulness by reason of 
their nearness to and close connection with the 
heart and lungs of the heavens. 

This heavenly rhythmical motion the same 
angels, in conjunction with those of the dia- 



4Q 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



phragm, impress upon the whole world of spirits ; 
for the oesophagus is continued into the stomach, 
upon which the diaphragm also presses from 
above ; and all their motions they impart in con- 
siderable degree to the stomach ; and this com- 
munication is an important element in the train- 
ing which spirits undergo to fit them for life in 
the kingdom of heaven, every fibre of which re- 
sponds to the throbs of the same heart and the 
respirations of the same lungs. Not fully do the 
new spirits receive the influence. This they can- 
not do till the angelic plane of their minds is 
opened, and they pass once more through this 
heaven in the circulation of the lungs and heart 
— where they become angels, and their angelic 
faculties are opened — on their way to their own 
societies. As yet they perceive only the general 
influence of it, so far as it can affect their natural 
life. 



THE STOMACH 



r I ^HE world of spirits is like a forum or place 

-*- of resort, where all are at first assembled, 

and is as a stomach in which the food is at first 

collected ; the stomach, moreover, corresponds to 

that world." (A. R. 791.) 

And again we read : — 

" The world of spirits, which is midway between 
heaven and hell — into which every man first comes 
after death, and is there prepared — corresponds 
to the stomach, in which all the things that are put 
in are prepared, either to become blood and flesh, 
or to become excrement and urine." (A. R. 204.) 

"It is known that nourishment or food is worked 
over in many ways in the stomach, that its interior 
things which are good for use may be brought out ; 
namely, those which go into the chyle, and after- 
wards into the blood ; and that the process is con- 
tinued in the intestines. Such workings are rep- 
resented by the first discipline of spirits, which is 
according to their life in the world, that evil things 



42 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



may be separated, and good things, suited for use, 
may be collected. Wherefore it may be said of 
souls or spirits soon after decease, or separation 
from the body, that they come as it were into the 
region of the stomach, and there are disciplined 
and purified. They with whom evils have obtained 
dominion, after they have been disciplined in vain, 
are borne through the stomach into the intestines, 
and even to the last, namely, the colon and the 
rectum, and thence are cast out into the draught, 
that is, into hell. But they with whom good things 
have dominion, after some discipline and purifica- 
tion, become chyle, and go into the blood, some by 
a longer way, some by a shorter; and some are dis- 
ciplined severely, some gently, and some scarcely 
at all : these last are represented by the juices of 
food, which are immediately drunk in by the veins, 
and carried into the circulation, even into the brain, 
and so further. ,, (A. C. 5174.) 

Some of these good spirits, as we have already 
seen, are taken up into heaven before they reach 
the stomach, by the way of the ducts of the 
mouth. But some, of equally tender and pure 
quality, are more closely connected with worldly 
affairs and worldly people, and, like the juices en- 



THE STOMACH. 43 



tangled among coarser materials, are carried into 
the general place of assembly for new spirits, 
where they are soon made spiritually free and 
are conducted by a little longer way into heaven. 

In the world of spirits, strictly speaking, to 
which the stomach corresponds (A. R. 791), spirits 
may remain from a month to thirty years (A. R. 
866) ; and here are collected a vast multitude who 
live and work in societies, as in heaven or in hell. 
The work done here is that of what Swedenborg 
calls "the second state after death," that is, the 
state of the interiors ; and consists largely in the 
opening of the interiors. 

" When the first state is passed through, which 
is the state of the exteriors, . . . the man-spirit is 
let into the state of his interiors, or into the state 
of his interior will and consequent thought, in 
which he had been in the world when, being left 
to himself, he thought freely and without restraint. 
Into this state he slides without being aware of it, 
in like manner as in the world when he withdraws 
the thought which is nearest the speech, or from 
which the speech is, towards interior thought, and 



44 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



abides in it ; wherefore when the man-spirit is in 
this state, he is in himself, and in his own very 
life; for to think freely from his own proper affec- 
tion is the very life of man, and is himself. ,, 
(H. H. 502.) 

"The spirit in this state thinks from his own 
very will, thus from his own very affection, or from 
his own very love, and in this case the thought 
makes one with the will, and one in such a manner 
that it scarcely appears that the spirit thinks, but 
that he wills. The case is nearly similar when he 
speaks, yet w T ith this difference, that he speaks with 
some degree of fear lest the thoughts of the will 
should go forth naked, since by civil life in the 
world his will had contracted this habit/' (H. H. 
503-) 

In this state the habits of speech and action in 
which he has presented himself to society are 
separated from him, as the hulls from wheat, and 
the cell walls from the starch, sugar, or nutritive 
juices which they contain ; and his interior affec- 
tions act freely without any artificial cloak. And 
it is the dissolving of these cell walls and setting 
free of the contents which is the principal work 
of the stomach. 



THE STOMACH. 



45 



The food in the stomach is collected in consid- 
erable quantities, and is rolled in a spiral course 
around the large end of the stomach, and thence 
to the neighborhood of the pylorus, and back 
along the upper curve to the oesophagus. No 
doubt this takes place with great variety, and por- 
tions may be delayed in their course, and even 
drawn apart into the little chambers in the lining 
of the stomach for special treatment. All the 
while it is being mingled and worked over with 
the acid gastric fluids, whose function it is to set 
the purer parts of the food free and to separate 
them more completely from the gross and worth- 
less. 

The gastric fluids are secreted continually during 
the process of digestion and are continually ab- 
sorbed again by the coats of the stomach, carry- 
ing with them food which they have dissolved and 
returning again for more. The quantity required 
for digestion it would be impossible for the body 
to supply except by this process of re-absorption 
and repeated secretion. And as in the saliva 



46 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

there is an organic element, the ptyalin, whose 
office it is to induce the change of starch and 
sugar into a form which can be assimilated, so in 
the stomach there is its peculiar organic substance, 
called pepsin, mingling with the gastric fluids, and 
quickening the solution of the " proteids," or 
muscle-making elements of the food. 

The food thus massed together is like societies 
of spirits in similar states ; the fluids are instruc- 
tion concerning good and evil, concerning things 
that have life and those that are dead and use- 
less, which is to good spirits the means of in- 
creased and more joyous activity, and to the evil 
the means of self-condemnation and rejection. 

"All who have lived in good in the world, and 
have acted from conscience, as is the case with all 
those who have acknowledged a Divine and have 
loved Divine truths, especially those who have ap- 
plied them to life, appear to themselves, when let 
into the state of their interiors, like those who be- 
ing awakened out of sleep come into the full use 
of sight, and like those who from shade enter into 
light : they think also from the light of heaven, 



THE STOMACH. 



47 



thus from interior wisdom, and they act from good, 
thus from interior affection. Heaven also flows 
in into their thoughts and affections with interior 
blessedness and delight, of which before they knew 
nothing ; for they have communication with the 
angels of heaven. Then also they acknowledge 
the Lord and worship Him from their very life ; for 
they are in their own proper life when in the state 
of their interiors ; and they likewise acknowledge 
and worship Him from freedom, for freedom is of 
interior affection. They recede also thus from ex- 
ternal sanctity, and come into internal sanctity, in 
which essential worship truly consists. Such is 
the state of those who have lived a Christian life 
according to the precepts delivered in the Word. 
But altogether contrary is the state of those who 
in the world have lived in evil, and have had no 
conscience, and hence have denied a Divine. . . . 
By reason of their evil lusts, they burst forth into 
all abominations, into contempt of others, into rid- 
icule and blasphemy, into hatred and revenge. ,, 
(H. H. 506.) 

Physiology says that the starchy elements of the 
food, and perhaps cane-sugar, are not absorbed in 
the stomach, but, being acted upon by the saliva, 
and afterwards by the pancreatic and intestinal 



48 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES, 

fluids, are turned into the more readily absorbed 
sugar, usually called grape-sugar, or glucose, in 
which form they are taken up by the veins and 
lacteals ; that fatty materials pass unchanged into 
the intestine, where, soon after meeting with the 
bile and the pancreatic fluid, they are reduced to 
the form of an emulsion, or milky fluid ; the oil 
being divided into minute particles which are held 
as if in solution, in a state to be absorbed ; and 
that the fluids of the stomach dissolve only the 
muscle-making element of food, — the lean meat, 
the cheese of milk, and the gluten of grains. A 
portion of this, when dissolved, is taken up imme- 
diately by the veins and lacteals of the stomach ; 
and a portion, needing further purification by the 
bile and pancreatic fluid, is carried on for a short 
distance in the intestine. 

And, correspondingly, we should expect to find 
only a small proportion of spirits, and those the 
most willing and unselfish in their usefulness, 
taken up directly from the province of the stomach 
to the places of instruction. The greater part 



THE STOMACH, 49 



need some further preparation. Most persons, 
Swedenborg says, are in the lower earth before 
they are taken up into heaven. (A. C. 4728.) 

Of starch and fat we will speak hereafter, when 
we come to the intestines and the pancreas. 

Sugar corresponds to spiritual sweetness and 
pleasantness, which is immediately cheering and 
encouraging, and, in proper proportion to the 
more substantial satisfactions of good work, is 
wholesome mental nourishment. And the nitro- 
genizecl elements of food, which make muscle in 
the body, correspond to the love of useful work. 
It is to the assimilation of this that the stomach 
in the spiritual world especially addresses itself, 
separating it carefully from routine forms and con- 
ventionalities, and the many selfish considerations 
that mingle with every one's love of work, also 
from habits of indolence and self-indulgence, and 
rousing in it the desire to do the use in the 
Lord's kingdom for which it is fitted, and to 
learn to do it wisely and well. 

The great mass of the good that there is among 



5° 



PHYSIOL O GICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



men consists of various kinds of love of work. It 
may be largely mixed with love of the world and 
of various selfish rewards, and widely misdirected 
by mistaken notions of what is useful, and by fool- 
ish requirements of society ; yet it exists in some 
form in every mind that feels unhappy without 
useful occupation, and that prefers good work to 
large returns : and all such minds are collected 
and trained and purified in the world of spirits. 

The chief acid of the solvent fluids of the stom- 
ach is hydrochloric acid, which is the acid of 
common salt. Salt is a representative of the prin- 
ciple that good and truth need each other and 
belong together ; and the active principle of the 
salt represents a stimulus to every good to seek 
its truth, and to every truth to seek its good. 
The passive or alkaline principle may mean that 
they can do nothing alone. Solution by means of 
this active principle must mean the shaking off of 
all hindrances to the diligent learning to do good 
or to live the truth. And the organic substance, 
by which this solution is stimulated, must repre- 



THE STOMACH. 



sent the personal encouragement or warning of 
angels who themselves delight in assisting in the 
union of every good with its truth. (Comp. H. H. 
425.) The action of the gastric fluids in immedi- 
ately arresting decay has a correspondence in the 
fact that a descent into worse evil or greater profa- 
nation of good than one was in in the world is not 
permitted. 

By such influence and instruction good spirits 
are brought into more free and active life and are 
quickly separated from their worldly habits and 
desires. And, on the other hand, evil persons, 
who love self and the world supremely, reject the 
truth and when they come to those who accept 
it they repel each other. Swedenborg says of 
these : — 

"They are generally carried about through a 
wide circle, and everywhere are shown to good 
spirits as they are in themselves ; at the sight of 
them good spirits then turn themselves away ; and 
as they turn themselves away, so also the evil 
spirits who are carried about turn themselves from 
them to the quarter where their infernal society is, 
into which they are about to come." (H. H. 511.) 



5 2 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



Spirits who are good, but have confirmed in 
themselves some falsity or evil from which they 
must be freed, also turn away from those who 
accept the truth, and pass first through another 
stage of purification. 

The truth which is taught in this state, and 
which is represented by the general digestive 
fluids of the stomach, has for its purpose to 
bring the good into spiritual freedom and to 
separate evil from them. It is not interior spirit- 
ual truth ; it is religious and moral truth, such 
as is drawn from the letter of the Scriptures by 
those who are in the light of heaven and who 
love heavenly good. Interior truth, teaching more 
fully about the Lord and heaven and the spirit- 
ual sense of the Scriptures, is given to good spirits 
in their next places of sojourn, described by Swe- 
denborg as the " places of instruction " into which 
good spirits come in "the third state after death.'' 

How the Lord guides and controls all spirits, 
even when they seem mixed and confused, is de- 
scribed as follows : — 



THE STOMACH. 



53 



" There was a numerous crowd of spirits about 
me, which was heard as something disorderly and 
flowing. They complained, saying that now a total 
destruction was at hand ; for in that crowd nothing 
appeared consociated, and this made them fear de- 
struction. They supposed also that it would be 
total, as is the case when such things happen. 
But in the midst of them I perceived a soft sound, 
angelically sweet, in which was nothing but what 
was orderly. The angelic companies there were 
within, and the crowd of spirits to whom apper- 
tained what was without order was without. This 
angelic flowing stream continued a long time, and 
it was said that hereby was represented how the 
Lord rules things confused and disorderly which 
are without from what is pacific in the midst, 
whereby things disorderly in the circumference are 
reduced into order, each being restored from the 
error of its nature." (A. C. 5396.) 

The salivary fluids in the Greatest Man are such 
knowledge of heaven and of the world of spirits 
as serves to introduce new spirits into societies in 
the spiritual world. In the minds of men the cor- 
respondence of these fluids is with a knowledge 
of their own states and wants, which is the means 



54 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



of bringing new truth into relation with them- 
selves. If sugar or salt or any other dry solid 
food be placed upon the dry tongue it is per- 
fectly tasteless ; but as soon as the saliva or other 
watery fluid dissolves a portion of it its quality is 
perceived. So we may hear new truth without 
any knowledge or thought of its relation to our 
own states, or to any human states, and it cannot 
be otherwise than insipid ; but as soon as such 
knowledge or thought comes into contact with it 
instantly its agreement or disagreement with the 
life is felt, and it is received or rejected. Spit- 
ting upon anything is therefore a correspondential 
mode of expressing its utter disagreement with 
one's states of life. 

On the other hand, the spittle of which the 
Lord made clay, and anointed the eyes of the 
blind man, represented the simplest truth of His 
life which, adapted to the states of men, shows 
the relation between their lives and His and opens 
their eyes to spiritual things. 

After we have once received and accepted a 



THE STOMACH. 



55 



knowledge of what is good and true, which is 
food for the mind, we may meditate further upon 
it or we may simply take it home with the deter- 
mination to live it. The desire to live it, and to 
incorporate it in our life, will separate the essen- 
tial goodness from the special forms in which it 
comes to us and do the work of assimilation as 
silently as the solvents of the stomach do their 
work ; and we may know nothing of the process 
but only feel that we are encouraged and strength- 
ened for our duties. 

There is a likeness of indigestion when we cram 
knowledge or terms which we do not understand, 
and which we long revolve in the memory, vainly 
trying to get some good out of it. We become 
weary and disgusted with it and, for a time, with 
all knowledge. 

There was also a likeness of indigestion in the 
heavens when there long remained and accumu- 
lated in the world of spirits those who were good 
externally and evil internally, and whose internals 
could not be opened until the time of the Judg- 



56 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



ment. Then by the solvents of the new truth 
taught, the externals were broken through, the 
good internals were gathered into heaven, and 
the evil were cast down. 



THE INTESTINES. 



W 7HEN the work of the stomach is done, 
and by the dissolving of cell walls the nu- 
tritious contents are set free, and as much as pos- 
sible of the muscle-making elements of the food 
is dissolved, the work of digestion is continued in 
the intestines. But in the intestines the modes 
of action upon the food are changed according to 
the form and nature of the organ. The food is 
no longer revolved in a large mass, but is distrib- 
uted into little pockets or chambers formed by 
the folds of the lining membrane of the intestine, 
and receives treatment adapted to the character 
of its various elements. It is mingled with a 
variety of pungent fluids, from the liver, the pan- 
creas, and the intestinal glands, and is worked 
over in little handfuls much more urgently and 
severely than was possible in the general stomach. 
During the process of stomach digestion the 

57 



5 8 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

door between stomach and intestine is not wholly 
closed ; but those portions of the food which need 
the intestinal treatment, and will not be benefited 
by that of the stomach, are constantly passing 
out ; and some of them, as fat and starch, are 
quickly changed by the bile and the pancreatic 
and intestinal fluids, and absorbed by the lacteals 
from the intestinal wall. A considerable mass, 
however, remains in the stomach and undergoes 
its utmost powers of digestion, without perfectly 
yielding to the influences which would make fluid 
the good elements and separate them entirely 
both from the useless and from those that need 
severer treatment. But when all that the stomach 
can do is done this large remainder rapidly passes 
out and all its elements meet the bitter and acrid 
bile. This precipitates at once the nitrogenized 
portion of the chyme, and delays it for solution 
again and absorption, while the other materials 
pass on, — the remaining fat and starch to be con- 
verted into an emulsion and sugar respectively, 
and then absorbed, and the worthless materials to 
be rejected. 



THE INTESTINES. ^ 



This great mass corresponds to the spirits long 
delayed in the world of spirits, many of whom 
are in the main good and charitable, disposed to 
good uses but confirmed in some falsity, or at- 
tached to other persons who appear well as to 
worship and life, yet in heart love evil of life and 
the false doctrines that permit it. These need to 
meet together the sharp corrections of spirits who 
love to bring out and punish all the evil of heart 
and thought that they can find, thus thoroughly 
exposing the wicked and causing them to flee, 
when the humbled and chastened good, fearing 
that they also shall be rejected, desire more earn- 
estly to be instructed and taken up into heaven. 
The solvents of the stomach are mildly acid and 
perhaps, like the acids of fruit, represent instruc- 
tion that is altogether pleasant and friendly but 
stimulating and quickening. The solvents of the 
intestine are acrid and alkaline, and, like the alka- 
lies used in soap, and formerly used instead of 
soap, seem to represent reproving, chastening in- 
struction by which good and evil are separated. 



60 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

" Who they are who constitute the province of 
the intestines in the Greatest Man, may be mani- 
fest in some measure from those who relate to the 
stomach ; for the intestines are continued from the 
stomach, and the offices of the stomach there in- 
crease and become more harsh, even to the last in- 
testines which are the colon and rectum. Where- 
fore they who are in these are near to the hells 
which are called excrementitious. In the region of 
the stomach and intestines are they who are in the 
lower earth, who because they have brought with 
them from the world unclean things which are 
fixed in their thoughts and affections, are kept 
there for some time, until such things are wiped 
away, that is, are cast aside. After this is done, 
they can be taken up into heaven. They who are 
there are not yet in the Greatest Man ; for they 
are like aliments let down into the stomach, which 
are not introduced into the blood, thus into the 
body, until they are purified. They who are de- 
filed with more earthly dregs are under these in 
the region of the intestines ; but the excrements 
themselves which are discharged correspond to the 
hells which are called the excrementitious hells." 
(A. C. 5392.) 

There are many kinds of persons who need 



THE INTESTINES. 6 1 

such discipline ; among them are those who have 
contracted strong personal friendships without re- 
gard to the good or evil in one another. These, 
Swedenborg teaches us, — 

" cannot like others be separated according to order, 
and assigned to the society correspondent with their 
life ; for they are bound together interiorly as to the 
spirit, nor can they be severed, because they are 
like branches engrafted into branches. Therefore 
if one as to his interiors is in heaven, and the 
other as to his in hell, they remain fast to each 
other, much like a sheep tied to a wolf, or a goose 
to a fox, or a dove to a hawk ; and he whose inte- 
riors are in hell inspires the infernal things belong- 
ing to him into the one whose interiors are in 
heaven. For among the things that are well known 
in heaven is also this, that evil may be inspired 
into the good, bat not good into the evil ; this is 
because every one is by birth in evils. Conse- 
quently the interiors are closed in the good that are 
thus joined with the evil ; and they both are thrust 
down into hell, where the good man suffers hard 
things, but after a lapse of time is taken out, and 
then first is prepared for heaven. It has been 
granted me to see such bindings, especially among 
brothers and relatives, and also between patrons 



62 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

and their dependants, and of many with flatterers, 
among whom were contrary affections and unlike 
genius ; and I have seen some like kids with leop- 
ards, and they were then kissing one another, and 
swearing to their former friendship. And I then 
perceived that the good were absorbing the enjoy- 
ments of the evil, holding each other by the hand, 
and together entering into caves where crowds of 
the wicked were seen in their hideous forms, though 
to themselves, from the illusion of fantasy, they 
seemed in lovely forms. But after a while I heard 
from the good mournful cries of fear, as if on 
account of snares, and from the wicked I heard 
rejoicings like those of enemies over spoils; be- 
sides other sad scenes. I have heard that the 
good, when taken out, were afterwards prepared 
for heaven by reformatory means, but with greater 
difficulty than others.'' (T. C. R. 448.) 

Closely allied to these evil friends, who drag 
those who are attached to them down with them, 
seem to be "the judges of friendship and bribes," 
who could see nothing but what favored their 
friends, whom Swedenborg saw " in the lower 
earth, next above hell," and who were afterwards 
cast out (C. L. 231). There also were those called 



THE INTESTINES. 6$ 

" learned," because they were able by ingenious 
reasonings to throw doubt upon the real existence 
of every thing ; who also, because they perpetu- 
ally argue upon the surface of things, from appear- 
ances, are likened to " shells around almonds, 
without the kernel," and to " rinds around fruits, 
without the pulp." These likewise were cast out. 
(C. L. 232.) 

A third class seen in the same region were the 
" confirmators," called "wise" because they could 
make anything whatever appear to be true, no 
matter whether it were reasonable or unreason- 
able, true or false ; but they had no genuine wis- 
dom or understanding (C. L. 233). All three of 
these classes would be likely to drag down with 
them some who were simple minded, or strongly 
attached to them for various reasons, and to bring 
them into states of great suffering, from their evil 
associations in that lower earth. 

Of the lower earth, as he usually calls it, Swe- 
denborg says that in the world of spirits it is 
" next beneath the feet, and the region round 



64 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

about to a little distance ; there most persons are 
after death, before they are taken up into heaven. 
. . . Beneath it are the places of vastation, which 
are called pits ; below these places, and round 
about to a great distance, are the hells " (A. C. 
4728). He more commonly speaks of the places 
of vastation, by which are meant the places of 
severer trials by which the good are freed from 
evil clinging to them, as in the lower earth. He 
says, — 

" In order that I might see the torments of those 
who are in hell, and also the vastation of those 
who are in the lower earth, I was sometimes let 
down thither. ... I perceived plainly that, as it 
were, a kind of column encompassed me ; that col- 
umn was sensibly increased, and it was insinuated 
to me that this was the wall of brass spoken of in 
the Word, formed of angelic spirits, in order that I 
might be let down safely amongst the unhappy. 
When I was there I heard miserable lamentations, 
and indeed this cry, i Oh God, Oh God, be merci- 
ful to us, be merciful to us ' ; and this for a long 
time. It was granted to me to discourse with 
those miserable persons for some time. They 



THE INTESTINES. 



65 



complained chiefly of evil spirits, as burning with 
a continual desire only to torment them ; and they 
were in a state of despair, saying that they believed 
their torments would be eternal ; but it was granted 
me to comfort them." (A. C. 699; Comp. 4940.) 

Of the purpose of the vastation, he says, — 

" Man, by reason of actual sin, brings with him 
into the other life innumerable evils and falsities, 
which he accumulates and joins together. This is 
the case even with those who have lived uprightly. 
Before they can be elevated into heaven, their evils 
and falsities must be dissipated ; and this dissipa- 
tion is called vastation. There are many kinds of 
vastation, and the times of vastation are longer 
and shorter; some are taken up into heaven in a 
very short time, and some immediately after death." 
(A. C. 698.) 

" There are many who while they were in the 
world, through simplicity and ignorance, imbibed 
falsities as to faith, and formed a certain species 
of conscience according to the principles of their 
faith ; and did not live, as others, in hatred, re- 
venge, and adulteries. These in the other life, so 
long as they are in what is false, cannot be intro- 
duced into heavenly societies, for thus they would 
defile them ; therefore they are kept for some time 



66 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 

in the lower earth, in order that they may put off 
the principles of falsity. The times of their stay 
there are longer or shorter according to the na- 
ture of the falsity and the life contracted from it, 
and according to the principles confirmed in them- 
selves ; some endure hard things in that state, 
others not hard. These are what are called vasta- 
tions, whereof much mention is made in the Word. 
When the time of vastation is over, they are taken 
up into heaven, and are instructed as novitiates in 
the truths of faith ; and this is done by angels by 
whom they are received." (n. 1106.) 

" There are some w T ho willingly endure to be 
vastated, and thereby to put off the false princi- 
ples w r hich they had brought with them out of the 
world. (It is not possible for any one to put 
off false principles in the other life, except after 
some length of time, and by means provided by 
the Lord.) During their stay in the lower earth 
they are kept by the Lord in hope of deliverance, 
and in the thought of the end, that thus they may 
be amended and may be prepared to receive heav- 
enly happiness." (n. 1 107.) 

" In those places are they who have ascribed all 
things to nature, and little to the Divine. I con- 
versed with them there, and when the discourse 
was concerning the Divine Providence they attrib- 



THE INTESTINES. 



67 



utcd all things to nature. Nevertheless those there 
who have led a good moral life, when they have 
been detained there some time, successively put off 
those principles and put on principles of truth." 
(n. 4941.) 

" In the lower earth, beneath the feet and the 
soles of the feet, are also they who have placed 
merit in good deeds and works ; some of them ap- 
pear to themselves to cut wood ; the place where 
they are is rather cold, and they seem to them- 
selves to acquire heat by their labor. With these 
also I conversed, and it was given to ask them 
whether they wished to come forth from that place. 
They said, that as yet they had not merited it by 
labor ; but when that state has been passed through 
they are then conveyed away thence. These also 
are natural, because to wish to merit salvation is 
not spiritual. And moreover they prefer them- 
selves to others ; some of them even despise others. 
These, if in the other life they do not receive joy 
above others, are indignant against' the Lord ; 
wherefore when they cut wood it sometimes ap- 
pears as if somewhat of the Lord was under the 
wood, and this from indignation. But whereas 
they have led a pious life, and have acted thus from 
ignorance, in which there was somewhat of inno- 
cence, therefore occasionally angels are sent to 



68 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

them and console them." (n. 4943 ; also n. 11 10; 
the grass-cutters, 1 1 1 1.) 

"They who come out of the world from Chris- 
tian lands, and have led a moral life and had some 
degree of charity toward the neighbor, but have 
had little concern about spiritual things, for the 
most part are sent into the places beneath the feet 
and the soles of the feet ; and are kept there until 
they put off the natural things in which they have 
been, and are imbued with spiritual and celestial 
things as far as they can be according to their life; 
and when they have become imbued with these, 
they are taken up thence into heavenly societies. 
I have seen them at times emerging, and their joy 
at coming into heavenly light." (n. 4944; also 
others to 4950.) 

All these states of vastation appear to be accom- 
plished in those parts of the lower earth corre- 
sponding to the intestines, and from thence the 
chastened good spirits are taken up as chyle is 
absorbed by the veins and lacteals. Xo doubt the 
modes of correction and vastation are all repre- 
sented in the methods by w r hich the chyme is 
sorted, some of which we have briefly touched 



THE INTESTINES. 69 

upon, and others will appear more clearly when 
we study the liver and the pancreas. 

The intestines are generally distinguished into 
two, — the large and the small; and these are 
each subdivided into three or more. The small 
intestine is long, much convoluted, and freely sup- 
plied with absorbing vessels. Into this the imper- 
fectly digested food first passes from the stomach, 
and almost immediately meets the bile, the pan- 
creatic fluid, and the intestinal fluids. 

By the bile a large part of the muscle-making 
chyle is immediately precipitated, and thus sepa- 
rated from impurities and held for solution by the 
pancreatic fluid ; also a part of the fat is turned 
into soap, in which form it is readily absorbed. 
The pancreatic fluid, besides effecting the solution 
of the albuminous precipitate, quickly makes a 
milky emulsion of the remaining fat, at least in 
reasonable quantity, and also, with the fluid of the 
intestinal glands, quickly completes the transform 
ation of the starch into sugar, in which forms re- 
spectively both fat and starch are readily absorbed. 



7° 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



The remainder of the chyme, together with such 
portions of these good materials as have not com- 
pleted their metamorphoses, passes rapidly on, 
subjected to more and more severe treatment, 
and parting at every turn with its good particles, 
till by the time it reaches the large intestine, 
called the colon, there is scarcely anything in it 
which can serve any good use in the body. 

In the colon the residue is no longer treated as 
food to be redeemed to good uses if possible ; 
but is compacted for rejection, and undergoes the 
last wringing to rescue from it the small re- 
mainder of possibly nutritious fluids. 

That any spirits can be saved who, in the cor- 
responding treatment in the lower earth, so long 
resist both kindness and chastisement, and remain 
as companions with the wicked until their loath- 
someness is so fully exhibited, shows the infinity 
of the saving mercy of the Lord, which does not 
permit the least thing in a human spirit to be 
lost that can possibly be saved to heavenly life. 
There are spirits, Swedenborg tells us, "who have 



THE INTESTINES. 



71 



lived an evil life, and yet have some remains of 
good concealed in them. These remains cause 
them to have a little spiritual life after many ages 
of vastations." (n. 5561.) 

These, perhaps, are taken up from the province 
of the colon. Others, corresponding to the con- 
tents of the colon, some of whom are saved, are 
described as delighting in rapine and slaughter, 
yet having a little humanity, (n. 5393.) 

As to those who correspond to the walls of the 
intestine, and are a part of the Greatest Man, 
they must be such as take pleasure in correcting 
and punishing, yet from justice and for the sake 
of reformation. They who correspond to the small 
intestine, especially the upper part of it, from 
which chyle is most freely absorbed, are especially 
delighted to rescue the good from the evil, by 
sharp reproof if necessary, and to introduce them 
among heavenly companions. But they who are 
in the large intestine, and especially those who 
correspond in their uses to the rectum, take pleas- 
ure in punishing and confining the evil; yet always 



72 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



with an interior satisfaction in protecting the good 
from them. 

Of course they who have absolutely no love of 
good, and no childlike remains, but are wholly de- 
voted to self, have no basis for heavenly develop- 
ment. To make angels of them would be to de- 
stroy them utterly, and create new spirits. They 
are not destroyed, but are permitted to enjoy such 
vile pleasures as they can without injuring other 
spirits. 

" They who in the life of the body have made 
voluptuous pleasures their end, and have loved only 
to indulge their natural propensities, and to live in 
luxury and festivity, caring only for themselves 
and the world, without any regard to things Divine, 
and void of faith and charity, these after death are 
at first introduced into a life similar to what they 
have lived in the world. There is a place in front 
towards the left, at a considerable depth, where all 
is pleasure, sport, dancing, feasting, and light con- 
versation ; to this place such spirits are conveyed, 
and then they know no other but that they are 
still in the world. But after a short time the scene 
is changed ; for then they are carried down to 



THE INTESTINES. 73 



hell . . . for such pleasure, which is merely cor- 
poreal, is, in the other life, changed into what is 
excrementitious ; I have seen them there carrying- 
dung, and lamenting." (A. C. 943.) 

In the other life, the quality of spirits is made 
sensible by odors ; and " they who have indulged 
in mere sensual pleasures, and have lived in no 
charity and faith, exhale an odor like that of ex- 
crement. The case is the same with those who 
have passed their lives in adulteries ; but the odor 
of these is still more offensive." (15 14.) 

Those also who have lived in intense self-love, 
with no charity or humanity towards those who do 
not favor them, also those who have delighted 
solely in avarice, or in cruelty, or robbery, or mere 
selfish indolence, or any other form of evil, of 
necessity are entirely separated from the heavenly 
man. 

In us as individuals, the operation of the intes- 
tines, as regards the digestion of food and the 
absorption of good material, is scarcely felt. And 
the like is true of the operation of the mind in 



74 



PHYSIOL GICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



absorbing strength from the true and good things 
we learn and adopt. That the process does go on, 
however, and that we do continue for a time to 
gather strength from such spiritual food is evident. 
But much of the truth we receive is contained 
in forms and formulas which are themselves of no 
account; and the mind which is healthily growing 
in wisdom extracts the wisdom from them, and 
lets the mere learning pass into oblivion. And, 
again, the mind is recreated by pleasant natural 
things, which are correspondences of good affec- 
tions and thoughts. Music, beautiful scenery, and 
pictures, pleasant food, and other things agreeable 
to the senses, may serve this purpose. A healthy 
mind loves these for their use, and then lets the 
sensual impressions pass away ; but an unhealthy 
mind clings to these with a kind of indolent fas- 
cination, retaining them in the thoughts long after 
their use is over, and grows spiritually stupid and 
unhappy from them. 



THE MESENTERY, 



L^ROM stomach and intestines the chyle is ab- 
sorbed both by veins and by lacteals. That 
which is taken up by the blood-vessels is carried 
forward by the portal vein to the liver, there to 
be sorted, trained to the activities of the body, and 
distributed in several ways according to its quality. 
That which is absorbed by the lacteals is carried 
through a labyrinthine network, knotted by many 
glands, called the mesentery, and is then collected 
into a vessel about the size of a finger, situated 
on the right side of the spinal column, just under 
the diaphragm, called the receptacle of chyle. 
Here it is. mingled with the lymph returned by 
the lymphatics from all the viscera of the abdo- 
men and the thorax ; and then, through an irreg- 
ular tube called the thoracic duct, it ascends nearly 
to the neck, emptying usually into the vein that 
returns the blood from the left arm to the heart. 

75 



7 6 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



Of those who constitute this receptacle and 
duct, Swedenborg says, — 

" They who constitute this province are of a two- 
fold kind ; some are modest enough, some are for- 
ward. The modest are they who have desired to 
know the thoughts of men, with the intent of at- 
tracting and binding them to themselves ; for he 
who knows what another thinks is acquainted with 
his secrets and his interiors, which cause them to 
be conjoined together ; the end regarded is con- 
versation and friendship. They desire only to 
know the good things and explore them, and put 
a good interpretation upon the rest." (A. C. 5180.) 

Of a similar quality in general must be the 
angels of all the lacteals of the mesentery. 

We can imagine these gentle angels, loving con- 
versation and friendship, receiving the new spirits, 
who by various chastenings have come to desire 
instruction in the truth of heaven and a life ac- 
cording to it, walking with them by intricate ways, 
calling out their good thoughts, explaining away 
their troubles, leading them hither and thither 
according to the wants they discover in them, in- 



THE MESENTERY. 



77 



troducing them to quick and gentle changes of 
state, that their sympathies may be quickened and 
variously extended, and bringing them to one 
gland-like community or another, as it may seem 
useful to associate them with other new spirits, or 
to give them the benefit of angels' teaching, and 
finally escorting them to the great road in which, 
with thousands of redeemed, rejoicing spirits, they 
ascend toward the warm heart of the heavens. 

This initiation into heavenly companionship and 
heavenly thought is a preparation of the good for 
heaven. The mesentery, therefore, corresponds to 
places of instruction for a part of the new spirits 
in their progress toward heaven ; as is confirmed 
by the following passage : — 

" It may be known in some measure from the 
gyres to what province in the Greatest Man, and 
correspondently in the body, spirits and angels be- 
long. The gyres of those who belong to the prov- 
ince of the lymphatics are slender and rapid as a 
watery element gently flowing, so that scarcely any 
gyration can be perceived. They who belong to 
the lymphatics are afterwards conveyed into places 



7 8 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

which they said have reference to the mesentery, 
and it was told me that there are as it were laby- 
rinths therein, and that they are next taken away 
thence to various places in the Greatest Man, that 
they may serve for use as chyle in the body. ,, 

(5181.) 

The winding ways by which men are taught by 
the Lord, even in this world, are also likened by 
Swedenborg to these mesenteric paths, — 

" Every one is from infancy brought into that 
Divine Man whose soul and life is the Lord ; and 
in Him, not out of Him, he is led and taught from 
His Divine love according to His Divine wisdom. 
But as freedom is not taken away from man, a 
man cannot be led and taught otherwise than ac- 
cording to reception as by himself. They who re- 
ceive are borne to their places by infinite windings, 
as by meandering streams, almost as the chyle is 
carried through the mesentery and its lacteals into 
its receptacle, and from this through the thoracic 
duct into the blood, and so to its destination. They 
who do not receive are separated from those who 
are within the Divine Man, as the faeces and urine 
are separated from man." (D. P. 164.) 



THE MESENTERY. 



79 



The glands of the mesentery are of great inter- 
est in their correspondence. The fibres of the 
network of lacteals run from one gland to another, 
having also threads which pursue their course with 
more directness ; so that it is possible for the chyle 
to pass through several glands, or, perhaps, to 
enter none at all, on its way to the receptacle. 

In the glands it meets arteries and veins and 
nervous fibres. The arteries bring fresh blood 
from the heart, and the nerves bring spirit from 
the brain. The purpose of the glands is evidently 
to prepare the new chyle more perfectly to enter 
into the uses of the body ; and this purpose they 
must fulfil by modifying the chyle, either through 
the forms of their little vessels, or by communica- 
tion of vital elements to it from the arteries and 
the nervous fibres ; perhaps it performs its office 
in both ways. "The mesentery elaborates the 
chyle, and the liver the blood " (D. P. 336). It is 
believed also that the white corpuscles, which are 
an active element in the blood and which are rap- 
idly multiplied after a meal, are formed in part in 
these glands. 



80 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

Now the chyle of the Greatest Man is composed 
of good spirits freed from their association with 
the evil and from evil influences, tender in feel- 
ing, and eager to learn. The blood of the arteries 
is composed of angelic spirits, prepared for heaven, 
but not yet fixed in their own societies ; also in 
part, apparently, of "subject" angels sent from 
their societies for special service elsewhere. And 
the nerve influence, direct from the brain, is the 
direct influence or presence of wise angels of the 
third heaven. 

If, then, we should read of good, intelligent 
spirits, eager to be instructed, being trained to 
angelic thought under the care of angels and 
the direct supervision and inspiration of angels of 
the third heaven, we should conclude with reason 
that we had found a place marvellously like a mes- 
enteric gland. 

In n. 132, of the work on " Conjugial Love," we 
read, — 

" I once conversed with two angels ; one was 
from the eastern heaven, the other from the south- 



THE MESENTERY. 



ern heaven ; who . . . said, ' Do you know anything 
of the Exercises of Wisdom in our world?' I an- 
swered that I did not yet. And they said, ' They 
are numerous, and those who love truths from spir- 
itual affection, or truths because they are truths, 
and because by means of them is wisdom, come 
together at a given signal, and canvass and con- 
clude those things which are of more profound un- 
derstanding.' They then took me by the hand, 
saying, ' Follow us, and you shall see and hear ; to- 
day the signal for meeting is given.' I was led 
across a plain to a hill ; and, behold, at the foot of 
the hill was an avenue of palms, continued even to 
its top. We entered it and ascended. And on 
the top or summit of the hill was seen a grove, the 
trees of which, upon an elevation of ground, formed 
as it were a theatre, within which was a plain sur- 
face covered with little stones variously colored. 
Around it, in a square form, were placed seats, 
upon which the lovers of wisdom were sitting ; and 
in the middle of the theatre was a table upon 
which was laid a paper sealed with a seal. Those 
sitting upon the seats invited us to the seats as 
yet vacant. And I answered, 'I was led here by 
the two angels to see and listen, and not to sit.' 
And then those two angels went into the middle 
of the plain surface to the table, and loosed the 



82 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

seal of the paper, and read, in the presence of those 
sitting, the arcana of wisdom written upon the 
paper, which they were now to canvass and un- 
fold. They were written by angels of the third 
heaven, and let down upon the table. There were 
three arcana : First, What the image of God is, 
and what the likeness of God, into which man was 
created ? Second, Why man is not born into the 
knowledge belonging to any love, when yet beasts 
and birds, as well the noble as the ignoble, are born 
into the knowledges belonging to all their loves ? 
Third, What the tree of life signifies, and what the 
tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and what 
the eating from them ? 

" Under these was written, * Conjoin these three 
into one opinion, and write this upon a new paper, 
and lay it upon this table, and we shall see it ; if 
the opinion when weighed appears right and just, 
there shall be given to each of you a reward of 
wisdom.' 

" These things being read, the two angels with- 
drew, and were taken up into their own heavens. 
And then those sitting upon the seats began to 
canvass and unfold the arcana proposed to them." 

After an orderly and enlightened discussion, 
their conclusions were combined into one series, 
as follows, — 



THE MESENTERY. 



83 



" That man is created that he may receive love 
and wisdom from God, and yet in all likeness as of 
himself ; and this for the sake of reception and 
conjunction ; and that therefore man is not born 
into any love, nor into any knowledge, and also not 
into any power of loving and being wise from him- 
self ; wherefore if he ascribes all good of love and 
truth of wisdom to God, he becomes a living man ; 
but if he ascribes them to himself, he becomes a 
dead man. 

"These they wrote upon a new paper, and placed 
this upon the table ; and, behold, suddenly angels 
were present in shining white light, and carried 
away the paper into heaven ; and after it was read 
there, those sitting upon the seats heard thence the 
words, 'Well, well, well ' ; and forthwith there ap- 
peared one thence as if flying," and distributed to 
all the company beautiful rewards of wisdom. 

If this admirable exercise did not take place in 
the mesentery, it certainly illustrates the processes 
which must there be accomplished. 

Other similar lessons are also described by Swe- 
denborg. 

Somewhat similar are the schools taught by the 
ancient wise men of Greece. "All the Athe- 



84 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

nians," St. Luke tells us, " and strangers which 
were there, spent their time in nothing else but 
either to tell or to hear some new thing.' ' (Acts 
xvii. 21.) 

In the neighborhood of Athens also were the 
schools of philosophy taught by Pythagoras, Soc- 
rates, Plato, Aristotle, and many others, in which, 
from the new things told, wise lessons of morality 
or philosophy were deduced ; and from which have 
come down to us, in the form either of allegory or 
of direct instruction, almost all the remains we 
have of the wisdom of the Ancient Churches. 

The desire of these wise men to learn new 
things, and to instruct in true wisdom, was not 
diminished but increased and enlightened by their 
change to the spiritual world. It is not, therefore, 
a matter of surprise to find them, in Swedenborg's 
descriptions, receiving modest and intelligent new 
comers with the greeting, "What news from the 
earth ? " — inquiring especially about the thoughts 
of men concerning eternal life, and then wisely 



THE MESENTERY. 



85 



instructing the spirits in the nature of heavenly 



life and happiness. 



These things are set forth at length C. L. 151- 
154, 182, 207. 



THE LIVER 



n^HAT part of the chyle which is taken up by 
the lacteals is initiated into the quick and 
gentle flow of the mesentery, is modified, and, as 
it were, instructed in the mesenteric glands, and 
then is carried to the receptacle of chyle, and 
through the thoracic duct and the left subclavian 
vein to the heart. 

The portion of the chyle which is taken up 
from the stomach and intestines by the veins, is 
collected in the great portal vein, where it mingles 
with the blood returned from all the viscera of 
digestion, and then by the portal vein it is con- 
ducted for its training, instruction, and purification 
to the liver. 

The portal vein enters the liver side by side 
with the hepatic artery which brings fresh blood 
from the heart, the bile duct which returns its 
peculiar secretion to the intestines, and a coating 

86 



THE LIVER. 



87 



of cellular tissue which appears to be the origin 
and home of a host of lymphatic vessels. 

These proceed together, dividing and subdivid- 
ing again and again, till their minute twigs en- 
close in their embrace minute little lobes or 
lobules. The walls of these lobules are composed 
of small tubes running inward, and lined with 
cellular matter peculiar to the organ. 

To these the portal vein and the hepatic artery 
offer their burdens of chyle and blood, both fresh 
and refuse ; and the tubuli, with sensitive percep- 
tion adapted to their use, drink in from them the 
harmonious elements which will combine in a rich, 
wholesome current for the use of the body, and 
this they offer to the open mouths of the hepatic 
veins. These veinlets open in the cavities of the 
lobules, and there receive, and thence convey to 
the vena cava, for the heart, whatever the liver 
may present to them. The lighter portion of the 
chyle and lymph, not needed for the present use 
of the blood, flows quickly on its pleasant lym- 
phatic path, and joins its companions in the chyle 



88 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 

receptacle. The hard and obstinate particles 
which cannot conform to the requirements of the 
tubuli, and would be of no use elsewhere in the 
body, are remanded to the bile ducts and the gall 
bladder ; the worst of them to be cast out, the 
better for a low use in the intestines. 

" There are gyres into which recent spirits must 
be inaugurated, that they may enter into consoci- 
ation with others and may speak and think to- 
gether with them. There must be concord and 
unanimity of all, in the other life, that they may 
be one ; as all things in man, which, although 
they are everywhere various, yet by unanimity 
make one, so in the Greatest Man. For this end 
the thought and speech of one must agree with 
that of others. It is a fundamental thing that the 
thought and the speech should in themselves be in 
concord in every member of a society ; otherwise 
something discordant is felt as a harsh noise which 
affects the minds of others. Every thing discor- 
dant also is disunient and is an impurity which 
must be rejected. This impurity from discord is 
represented by impurity with the blood and in the 
blood from which it must be defecated. This def- 
ecation is effected by vexations, which are nothing 



THE LIVER. 



else than temptations of various kinds, and after- 
wards by introduction into gyres." (A. C. 5182.) 

As there is a flow of thought and affection 
in every heavenly society peculiar to itself, so 
there are forms and motions in every organ of 
the body peculiar to itself, to which all fluids and 
particles which are introduced must conform, or 
they will be immediately rejected. If they do not 
agree with the little tubes, either in size or shape, 
or do not flow readily or smoothly through their 
windings, the tubes refuse to admit them, or 
contract and expel them. And in this they 
are guided by an exquisite, unerring sensitive- 
ness, given them continually in kind and degree 
adapted to their use. 

The liver may be regarded as a very large gland 
whose primary use it is to prepare good blood 
for the general uses of the body. It receives its 
supplies from the portal vein which brings new 
chyle and older blood from the abdominal viscera, 
and from the hepatic artery which brings fresh 
blood and old from the heart. It selects from 



9° 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 



these the materials demanded by the wants of the 
body, examines them thoroughly, carefully strains 
and sorts them, makes intimately acquainted and 
combines the new and the old, and thus mingles 
wisely a stream rich and wholesome and suited 
to its use, which it sends through the hepatic 
veins and the vena cava to the heart. A second- 
ary secretion of fresh, lively fluid, suited to re- 
plenish the streams returning from the left side 
of the head and the left arm, it sends thither 
through the lymphatics and the thoracic duct. 
And a third secretion of materials, not suited to 
the general circulation, but still capable of doing 
service in the digestion of new food, it despatches 
to the intestines through the hepatic duct and the 
gall bladder. 

It is also regarded as an important function of 
the liver to reduce the surplus of sugary material, 
not immediately needed in the work of the body, 
to a starch-like condition, in which form it is 
called glycogen, and store it up until it is wanted 
for use. In the form of glycogen it remains un- 



THE LIVER. 



9 1 



changed until it is summoned, and then is quickly 
changed again into sugar. While it is proper to 
mention this use here, the consideration of its 
significance will be deferred till we study the 
omentum. 

The noble use of the liver to the body corre- 
sponds to a noble spiritual use of a vast province 
to the heavens. The province is large ; for the 
liver is larger than any other viscus, if we except 
the whole mass of the intestines. And its use is 
to assimilate to the life and uses of the heavens 
newly-arrived spirits, especially those with a zeal 
for usefulness ; to instruct, also, and expand the 
minds of others drawn from various provinces of 
the heavens ; and to separate from the system per- 
verse individuals and affections. 

" It has been given me to perceive the gyres 
of those who belong to the province of the liver, 
and this for a space of hours. Their gyres were 
gentle, flowing around variously, like the operation 
of that organ. They affected me w T ith great de- 
light. Their operation is diverse, but it is in gen- 



9 2 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



eral orbicular. That their operation is diverse is 
represented also in the functions of the liver, that 
they are diverse ; for the liver draws to itself 
the blood, and separates it ; pours the better part 
into the veins, that of a middle sort it remands to 
the hepatic duct, and the vile it leaves to the gall 
bladder. 

" (It is thus in adults ; but in embryos the liver 
receives the blood from the mother's womb, and 
purifies it ; the purer part it infuses into the veins, 
that it may flow by a short way to the heart. It 
then acts as a guard before the heart.)" (n. 5183.) 

" By the liver is signified interior purification; 
for the liver purines the blood, but the intestines 
those things of which the blood is composed. . . . 
In other cases by the liver is signified the external 
good of innocence, such as appertains to infants ; 
by reason that infants, before the rest of the vis- 
cera are fully formed to their use, as is the case 
when they are embryos, are nourished through the 
liver; for all the nutritious juice is brought thither 
through the placenta and the navel from the womb 
of the mother ; this juice corresponds to the good 
of innocence." (n. 10031.) 

A part of the spirits newly received into the 
spiritual world are conducted into heaven by the 



THE LIVER. 93 






way of the lacteals, being trained in the flow and 
varieties of heavenly thought and affection in the 
devious paths of the mesentery, and examined and 
instructed in the schools represented by its glands. 
Another, and probably the larger, part ascend by 
the way of the veins, — not yet fairly in the cir- 
culation, for they have yet to be trained and in- 
structed in the province of the liver and then 
received and sent forth by the heart. 

As the treatment received by these two portions 
of the chyle is so different, it may be well to con- 
sider briefly the materials of which they consist. 
Nearly all the elements which enter into their 
composition they have in common, with the 
marked exception of the red globules which are 
already in the veins. There are white globules 
in the lacteals as well as in the veins, and even 
imperfect red globules soon appear. The chief 
difference seems to be in the proportions in which 
they are mingled. There are fibrine and fat, 
sugar, water, and salts, in both ; but very much 
more of fibrine and sugar in the veins, and very 



94 



PHYSIOL GICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



much more of water and fat, and probably of some 
salts, in the lacteals. From the comparative red- 
ness and solidity of the contents of the veins, it 
would appear that they represent those who are 
more in the love of goodness and of usefulness, 
which love is especially represented by the fibrin- 
ous, muscle-making element of the blood ; the 
sweetness of the stream also represents the sweet- 
ness of character of those who have suffered hard 
things, and perhaps the enjoyment in the love of 
goodness in those in whom this love has been 
purified. And from the whiteness and wateri- 
ness of the contents of the lacteals, it seems 
plain that they represent those who are more in 
the love of truth and the good life which truth 
teaches. The considerable quantity of fat con- 
tained in the lacteals may seem to conflict with 
this, since fat has a celestial meaning. But the 
fat in this case may represent the celestial of the 
spiritual, — that is, the kindness and good-will of 
those who are in the love of truth ; as the but- 
ter of milk represents the mother's love for the 
children whom she teaches. 



THE LIVER. 



95 



It seems safe then to conclude that they who 
ascend by the portal way to the province of the 
liver are those who are especially in the love of 
goodness, and in the desire to be trained and in- 
structed in angels' uses. They walk in company 
with those who have been sent to assist in the 
preparation of new spirits, and who now, delighted 
with their docile companions, discourse with them 
of heavenly employments, inspire into them their 
own love of use, and enter, together with them, 
the great province of instruction. 

Thither come also, by the way of the heart, 
other new spirits who have entered the circula- 
tion by shorter ways, and angels from all prov- 
inces of the body who need to be relieved of 
opinions and feelings too narrow for their present 
uses, and initiated into broader views and quicker 
sympathies ; and possibly also some spirits who, 
by reason of their urgency, have been permitted 
to enter heaven unprepared, and by this way are 
cast out, if evil, or have an opportunity for in- 
struction if good. (A. R. 611). Perhaps it is not 



9 6 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

by chance that Swedenborg describes some of 
both of these kinds in the midst of his descrip- 
tion of the places of instruction. (H. H. 518.) 

"The third state of man, after d^ath," Sweden- 
borg says, " is a state of instruction ; this state 
appertains to those who come into heaven and be- 
come angels, but not to those who come into hell, 
since these latter cannot be instructed " (H. H. 
512). We should, therefore, look for the places 
of instruction in some province through which the 
chyle passes after it is separated from worthless 
materials in the proper digestive organs, and be- 
fore it reaches the heart. The only organs thus 
situated are the mesentery and the liver. The 
province of the mesentery appears to serve for 
this use, or at least for initiation into exercises 
of wisdom for a part of the new spirits ; but the 
chief places of instruction and of introduction to 
heavenly uses evidently must be situated in the 
province of the liver. 

"Those places of instruction," we are told, "are 
to the north, and are various, arranged and distin- 



THE LIVER. 



97 






guished according to the genera and species of 
heavenly goods, that each and every person may 
there be instructed according to his particular 
temper and faculty of reception. Those places 
extend in all directions there to a considerable dis- 
tance. The good spirits who are to be instructed 
are conveyed thither by the Lord, when they have 
passed through their second state in the world of 
spirits, but still not all ; for they who had been in- 
structed in the world were there also prepared by 
the Lord for heaven, and are conveyed into heaven 
by another way ; some immediately after death ; 
some after a short stay with good spirits, where 
the grosser thoughts and affections which they con- 
tracted from honors and riches in the world are 
removed, and thus they are purified ; some are first 
vastated, which is effected in places under the soles 
of the feet, which are called the lower earth, where 
some suffer severely ; these are they who have con- 
firmed themselves in falsities, and still have led 
good lives ; for falsities confirmed inhere w r ith much 
force, and until they are dispersed truths cannot be 
seen, thus cannot be received." (H. H. 513.) 

"All who are in the places of instruction have 
distinct habitations there ; for every one as to his 
interiors is connected with the society of heaven to 
which he is about to come ; wherefore since the 



9 8 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

societies of heaven are arranged according to a 
heavenly form, so likewise are the places where 
instructions are given ; it is on this account that 
when those places are inspected from heaven, there 
appears then as it were a heaven in a lesser form. 
They extend themselves there lengthways from 
east to west, and breadthways from north to south ; 
but the breadth to appearance is less than the 
length. The arrangements, in general, are as fol- 
lows : In front are those who died infants, and have 
been educated in heaven to the age of first adoles- 
cence, who, after completing the state of their in- 
fancy with the females appointed to educate them, 
are brought thither by the Lord and instructed. 
Behind them are the places where they are in- 
structed who died adults, and who in the world 
were in affection for truth from the good of life. 
Behind them are they who have professed the 
Mohammedan religion, and in the world have led 
a moral life. . . . Behind these, more to the north, 
are the places of instruction of various Gentile na- 
tions, who in the world have led a good life in con- 
formity with their religion. . . . These in number 
exceed all the rest ; the best of them are from 
Africa." (n. 514.) 

They who have been educated from infancy in 
heaven are here instructed by angels of the inte- 



THE LIVER. 99 



rior heavens ; they who have died adult mostly by 
angels of the lowest heaven ; Mohammedans by 
angels who once were Mohammedans ; and gen- 
tiles by their respective angels, (n. 515.) But the 
" instructions differ from instructions on earth in 
this respect, that knowledge is not committed to 
memory, but to the life." "The affection for 
truth for the sake of uses of life is continually in- 
spired ; for the Lord provides that every one may 
love the uses suited to his particular genius, which 
love is also exalted by the hope of becoming an 
angel." "Truth is thus implanted in use, so that 
the truths which they learn are truths of use. 
Angelic spirits are thus instructed and prepared 
for heaven." (n. 517.) 

It may have nothing to do with the four depart- 
ments of the places of instruction, that there are 
two larger and two smaller lobes of the liver ; but 
it may be worth bearing in mind. Undoubtedly 
it is true that the lobes have their respective char- 
acteristics, and draw from the supplies accordingly, 
and furnish correspondingly varied products. 



IO o PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 

" After the spirits have been prepared for heaven 
in the above-mentioned places by instructions, 
which is effected in a short time, by reason that 
they are in spiritual ideas which comprehend 
many things together, they are then clothed with 
angelic garments, which for the most part are 
white, as of fine linen, and thus they are brought 
to the way which tends upwards toward heaven." 
(n. 519.) 

" There are eight ways which lead from the 
above places to heaven, and by which the novitiate 
angels are introduced, two from each place of in- 
struction, one going up towards the east, the other 
to the west ; they who come into the Lord's celes- 
tial kingdom are introduced by the eastern way, but 
they who come to the spiritual kingdom are intro- 
duced by the western way. The four ways which 
lead to the Lord's celestial kingdom appear adorned 
with olive trees and fruit trees of various kinds ; 
but those which lead to the Lord's spiritual king- 
dom appear adorned with vines and laurels. This 
is from correspondence, because vines and laurels 
correspond to the affection for truth and to its uses, 
whilst olives and fruits correspond to the affection 
for good and its uses." (n. 520.) 

May not this distinction be represented in the 
body by the distinction between the veins and the 



THE LIVER. ioi 



lymphatics of the liver. For these are the only 
two kinds of vessels by which there is ascent to 
the heart ; they both go from every part of the 
liver, and also from every gland in the mesen- 
tery ; and the lymphatics do go up to the left, 
and the veins to the right. 

The rejoicing of the new angelic spirits in their 
salvation from evil, and their enjoyment in the 
uses of heavenly life, may be represented in the 
abundant sugar which is found everywhere in 
the liver and in the fresh blood which it sends 
to the heart. The warmth of the liver, said to be 
greater than that of every other organ in the 
body, may represent that supreme exaltation of 
love which angels feel in initiating new spirits 
into heavenly joys. 

But, besides the angelic spirits who ascend from 
the places of instruction, rejoicing in new life, 
there are some, corresponding to the bile, who 
reject the wise and kindly instruction given in 
this province, adhere obstinately to their own 
opinions, are embittered because they are not re- 



102 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDENCES. 

ceived into heaven by reason of the natural de- 
pravity which they have done nothing to over- 
come, and therefore delight to find fault and to 
punish. (H. H. 518.) (Compare A. R. 611, 839, 
where is described the casting down of such in 
the neighborhood of the places of instruction of 
good boys.) These are permitted to go by the 
way of the hepatic duct to the intestines, where 
they may do a use in exposing evil, and in the 
vastations of the good who have some confirma- 
tions of evil and falsity ; and as they go they are 
warned and threatened and guarded lest they 
should punish more than is useful. (A. C. 5185.) 
Perhaps the best of them, who love to punish for 
the sake of rescuing the good, may return with 
them to the safe places of instruction, and again 
go forth upon similar errands ; as the better ele- 
ments of the bile are absorbed by the veins and 
lacteals, and are again separated by the liver. 
Possibly some such may be said to be subjects 
of the liver sent to perform this use, as the sol- 
vents of the stomach were said to be subjects of 
that organ. 



THE LIVER. 



103 



Swedenborg believed that the worst of the bile 
was deposited in the gall bladder ; and either this 
is true, or the bile after it is carried there is 
severely wrung out, the lighter portions being car- 
ried away by veins or lymphatics, and the denser 
and bitterer portion being left, of course to be 
discharged into the intestine at suitable times. 
The bladder itself is tough and membranous ; its 
inner surface being wrinkled and knotted. Its 
neck is furnished with a spiral staircase, by which 
bile is assisted in passing up from the hepatic 
duct as by the turns of a hollow screw. Through 
the same spiral way, by a reversal of the turns, 
the bile descends to the intestine, and possibly it 
is exercised by being driven alternately one way 
and then the other, which exercise well corre- 
sponds with the mode of discipline described by 
Swedenborg as peculiar to the province. 

Swedenborg describes those who are represented 
by the bile as loving to punish ; the worst of them 
hardly being willing to desist. He says, " their de- 
lights are in punishing, and thus doing good ; nor 



io4 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



do they abstain from filth" (A. C. 5185). Those 
in the bladder itself cooperate in the use, moder- 
ating and restraining too great severities, and per- 
haps quickening the slow in the manner presently 
described. Of those in the gall bladder, he says, — 

" They are those who in the life of the body 
have despised what is honorable and in some de- 
gree what is pious, and also who have brought 
them into discredit." (n. 5186.) 

" A certain spirit came to me inquiring whether 
I knew where he might stay. I thought that he 
was honest, and when I told him that possibly he 
might stay here, the vexatory spirits of this prov- 
ince came, and vexed him miserably, which I was 
sorry for, and in vain desired to prevent. I then 
observed that I was in the province of the gall 
bladder. The vexatory spirits were of those who 
despised what is honorable and pious. It was 
given to observe one kind of vexation there, which 
was a compulsion to speak with a rapidity exceed- 
ing that of the thoughts, which they effected by an 
abstraction of the speech from the thought, and 
then by compulsion to follow their speech, which 
is done with pain. By such vexation the slow are 
inaugurated into greater quickness of thinking and 
speaking." (n. 5187.) 



THE LIVER. IO c 



From the "Spiritual Diary," nos. 1012-1014, it 
would appear that in general it is the spirits who 
have despised spiritual and heavenly things who 
are thus dealt with, and who are represented by 
the bile. Excessive slowness has the effect of 
unwillingness and sullenness ; if it can be over- 
come by temporary suffering the subjects will be 
forever happier and more useful. 

Perhaps some who intend well in the main, but 
are obstinately slow, — too slow to be initiated 
into the gyres of the liver, — are brought here 
for a time, and then are again taken up by the 
lacteals, more willing to be instructed, and them- 
selves giving useful warnings to others. 

The influx from the province of the liver of the 
Greatest Man into our minds must produce a de- 
sire and capacity, first, to assimilate the knowledge 
we have loved and received to the uses of our 
life. As particles of fat and mucilage and gluten 
cannot always remain in the circulation as fat 
and mucilage and gluten, but must be combined 
with the fluids of the body into one homogeneous 



106 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

fluid, ready to turn its hand to any use that may 
be required of it, so the knowledge of good works 
that others do, of the goodness of the Lord and 
of the uses that He desires us to do, cannot re- 
main in the mind in those forms, but must be 
transformed into thought and love of what it is 
good and right for us to do, and so enter the life 
current of our will. And this initiation of new 
ideas and intentions into the life of the spirit is 
done to a great extent in the province of the mind 
corresponding to the liver. 

A secondary, though very important, effect of 
that influence is to separate and expel from the 
current of our thoughts, ideas and opinions which 
prevent harmonious cooperation with others, espe- 
cially such as are self-asserting, bitter, and fault- 
finding. If the liver of the body does not act 
efficiently, and separate such effete materials, the 
body becomes heavy and sleepy, suffers much pain 
and general discomfort, and digests new food im- 
perfectly, or rejects it altogether. And if the cor- 
responding mental faculty does not faithfully do 



THE LIVER. IO y 



its duty in removing vain regrets and bitter fault- 
finding, the mind loses its living relation to pres- 
ent circumstances ; it adheres tenaciously to its 
own ways and opinions, refusing new ideas and 
affections, and becomes morose, stupid, and mis- 
erable. 



THE SPLEEN AND THE PANCREAS. 



/^"^LOSE under the lower ribs, on the left side 
of the body, just outside the stomach, lies 
the spleen, — a body about the size of the thick 
part of the hand, though nearly twice as thick ; 
of soft, spongy structure, composed of what is 
called the spleen pulp, together with very numer- 
ous arteries, veins, and lymphatics. The spleen 
receives a considerable quantity of blood through 
the splenic artery, and returns it through the 
splenic vein more fluid and lively than when it 
came. It sends also a considerable quantity of 
lymph by the lymphatics through the omentum 
to the chyle receptacle ; but discharges no other 
peculiar secretion. 

Its purpose is to modify the blood and prepare 
it for the winnowing of the liver, whither the 
blood returned by the spleen is immediately sent 
through the portal vein. At the extremities of 

108 



THE SPLEEN AND THE PANCREAS. 



109 



the arteries in the spleen, the blood appears to 
circulate among the cells of the pulp, unconfined 
by the usual capillary walls, and to be collected 
from this pulp circulation by the veins. During 
this process the mischievous adhesions among its 
particles are broken up, the worn-out globules are 
disintegrated, the worthless particles are set free, 
so as to be easily sifted out by the liver, and the 
good elements also are set free, so that they may 
meet and combine with the new chyle with more 
ready sympathy and greater power for usefulness. 
All the lymph that can be spared is sent off to 
the receptacle ; for the good blood is on its way 
to meet the new chyle, which will need all its 
power of absorbing and assimilating. 

Huxley says that the blood returned from the 
spleen " is found to contain proportionally fewer 
red corpuscles and more fibrine than that in the 
splenic artery ; and it has been supposed that the 
spleen is one of those parts of the economy in 
which the colorless corpuscles of the blood are 
especially produced." Probably some of the worn- 



no PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

out red corpuscles are really destroyed by the 
action of the spleen. It would naturally contain 
a larger proportion of fibrine, because the lymph is 
so largely withdrawn, and also because the color- 
less corpuscles seem to have the power of convert- 
ing the albuminous materials, dissolved in the 
blood, into coagulable fibrine, ready to be built into 
the tissues of the body. Hence also these cor- 
puscles are especially wanted in the work of re- 
ceiving and initiating new blood. It should be 
added that the spleen increases in size immedi- 
ately after taking food, and continues swollen and 
active during the process of digestion. 

The office of the spleen is supplemented by 
that of the pancreas. As the splenic artery runs 
along behind the stomach towards its goal, it 
sends little branches continually to a long, thin 
gland, called the pancreas, whose shape is likened 
by several authors to that of a dog's tongue. The 
pancreas also receives supplies from two other 
abdominal arteries. 

The quality of the blood drawn from the arte- 



THE SPLEEN AND THE PANCREAS. 1 T r 

ries by the pancreas may be inferred from the 
products which it makes of it. These are, first, 
a thin, watery, alkaline fluid called the pancreatic 
fluid, or, by Swedenborg, and other old authors, 
the pancreatic bile, which is discharged into the 
small intestine through the same orifice with the 
hepatic bile ; second, a purined i blood which it 
presents to the splenic vein as this brings back 
the fluid blood from the spleen ; and third, the 
lymph and fatty particles which it withdraws as 
much as possible from the other secretions to fit 
them for their uses, and despatches to the mes- 
entery, and probably at times to the omentum. 
(A. K. 228.) 

The blood returned from the pancreas unites 
with that from the spleen, and together they pro- 
ceed to the portal vein and the liver, to be there 
strained and purified, and then to unite with the 
new chyle and initiate it into the uses of the 
blood. 

The pancreatic fluid, in its humbler way, enters 
upon a lower part of the same use; for it pro- 



1 1 2 PHYSIOL GICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

ceeds immediately to the intestine, where it per- 
forms a prominent part in the digestion of fats 
and also of starch. Of the fats it quickly forms 
an emulsion, which is then readily absorbed by 
the coats of the intestine, and is conducted away 
by the lacteals and veins. And it assists greatly 
in transforming the rigid, insoluble starch into 
soluble sugar, which is taken up principally by 
the veins. Thus the spleen and the pancreas 
join hands to assist the liver in the work of pre- 
paring a stream of good blood for the general 
uses of the body, and initiating the new chyle 
into those uses. 

The spiritual uses of the correlative provinces 
in the Greatest Man must correspond to these 
natural uses. It is not for a moment to be sup- 
posed that any angel who has been received into 
heaven ever becomes useless and is cast down. 
(T. C. R. 341.) The correspondence of the con- 
tinual renovation of the tissues and the blood 
globules of the body is with the continual purifi- 
cation of forms of thought and affection in the 



THE SPLEEN AND THE PANCREAS. II3 



heavens. " It is a known truth," Swedenborg 
says, "that heaven is not pure before the Lord; 
it is true, also, that angels are in continual pro- 
gress towards perfection." (A. C. 2249.) 

" It is worthy of notice, yet it is altogether un- 
known in the world, that the states of good spirits 
and angels are continually changing and being per- 
fected, and thus they are carried on into the inte- 
riors of the province in which they are, thus into 
nobler functions ; for there is in heaven a continual 
purification, and, so to speak, a new creation ; but 
still it is true that no angel will ever attain abso- 
lute perfection to eternity ; the Lord alone is per- 
fect ; in Him and from Him is all perfection." 
(n. 4803.) 

The worn-out elements of the heavens, there- 
fore, are not the angels, but their inadequate 
forms of thought and states of feeling. The plan 
of the heavens is constantly being enlarged by 
the addition of new members ; and these mem- 
bers bring states of life which are new ; conse- 
quently the angels must have constantly expand- 
ing sympathies, and enlarging ideas of their mutual 



H4 



PHYSIOL O GICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 



relations and uses. Any who suffer themselves to 
be hindered in their usefulness by too strong at- 
tachments to persons and ways, or by too limited 
views or set opinions, need to be brought within 
the influence of the province of the spleen, that 
their states of life may be taken out of their 
routine and thoroughly examined. With gentle 
reproof those natural limitations are there broken, 
and they are prepared to receive broader views, 
and more comprehensive, freer affections, more fit 
for their uses. Sullen, disappointed feelings, and 
whatever selfish affections there may be mingled 
with the good, are there exposed and loosened ; 
and if any cling to such feelings, or if evil persons 
have forced themselves into the company of the 
good, they are detached and sent on to the places 
of instruction, whence they are at once cast out 
for the sterner warnings of the gall ducts, where 
all such bitterness is rendered harmless. Before 
the Last Judgment there were many evil spirits, 
especially of the dragon ists, who thus intruded 
themselves ; so that Swedenborg says the province 



THE SPLEEN AND THE PANCREAS. 



JI 5 



of the spleen was crowded with them. (S. D. 1005.) 
But the good angels who receive well the mild 
discipline of the spleen, made gentler, happier, and 
more ready for extended sympathy and good use, 
are gladly received in the province of the liver, 
and are entrusted with the care and instruction of 
new spirits just entering upon the life of heaven. 
This expansion of thought and plan and sym- 
pathy is continually needed by the whole heaven, 
especially in the process of assimilating new spirits ; 
and to obtain such expansion, probably angels 
from all parts of the heavens are continually de- 
scending to the places of instruction where new 
spirits are received. Therefore also the spleen, as 
well as the liver, is in its highest activity during 
the process of digestion. 

The pancreas, for its part of the work, sepa- 
rates from the currents of thought, or of spirits or 
angels, who come to it, those who are censorious, 
and unnecessarily disposed to correct others ; and 
sends such to the intestines, where such work is 
needed. 



1 1 6 PHYSIOL O GICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

No doubt, in both these organs, a similar work 
is done for those not so much in the love of prac- 
tical uses as in that of intelligent thought and 
conversation, who are represented by the lymph. 
These, too, in the gyres of the pancreas and the 
spleen are winnowed of the love for mere pleas- 
ant, idle talk, and also of that for censorious and 
acrimonious discussion; and made more intelligent 
by the purification, and more ready to do kindly 
uses as guides and instructors, they are permitted 
to offer themselves in such capacity to the noviti- 
ates ascending through the lacteals and the recep- 
tacle. 

Enough perhaps has been said of the muscle- 
making elements of food, the digestion of which 
is begun in the stomach and completed in the in- 
testine. Their correspondence, it will be remem- 
bered, is with the love of useful work ; the stomach 
digestion of them seems to correspond to the free- 
ing of them from externals of form and routine, 
that the inner love of usefulness may appear ; and 
the subsequent digestion in the intestines seems 
to represent the purification of this love. 



THE SPLEEN AND THE PANCREAS. 



117 



It remains to speak of the digestion of fats and 
starch, which takes place chiefly in the intestine. 

No doubt some delicate oils are absorbed from 
the stomach, and even from the mouth. The 
grosser kinds, as butter and the fat of meat, pass 
on to the intestine, and meet the acrid biles, by 
which they are emulsified, and made ready for 
absorption by the lacteals. They seem to corre- 
spond to natural goodness and kindness which has 
paid little attention to spiritual things, and needs 
a sharp warning to arouse a sense of need of 
instruction. Possibly they are those who are 
described by Swedenborg as follows : — 

" They who come out of the world from Chris- 
tian lands and have led a moral life, and had some- 
what of charity towards their neighbor, but have 
had little concern about spiritual things, for the 
most part are sent into the places beneath the feet 
and the soles of the feet ; and are there kept until 
they put off the natural things in which they have 
been, and are imbued with spiritual and celestial 
things as far as they can be, according to their 
life ; and when they have become imbued with 



Il8 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

these, they are elevated thence into heavenly soci- 
eties. I have at times seen them emerging, and 
their joy at coming into heavenly light." (n. 4944.) 

To such good but careless spirits the sharp 
censoriousness of the pancreatic spirits brings a 
sudden and wholesome awakening, one effect of 
which is to fill them with anxiety to be instructed, 
in which state they are ready to be taken up, 
and introduced into various exercises of spiritual 
wisdom. 

A similar use to that which the bile and pan- 
creatic fluid do for oils is done for starch by the 
pancreatic and intestinal fluids. Starch is exclu- 
sively a vegetable product, nearly resembling oil 
in its elements, but in a stiff, insoluble form. It 
is also like cane sugar in its composition, and 
needs only a slight modification to become like 
the sugar of fruits. Fruits correspond to works 
of affection, and their sugar to the enjoyment in 
them. Grains correspond to the duties of life, 
and their starch, which is in the place of sugar, 
to the satisfaction in good, faithful work. This 



THE SPLEEN AND THE PANCREAS. 



119 



has some sense of merit and virtue in it, which 
needs to be chastened and humbled, in order that 
it may work gently and sweetly with other peo- 
ple ; and this no doubt is represented by the 
turning of starch into easily soluble sugar by the 
action of the harsh pancreatic and intestinal fluids. 

They who receive this treatment, perhaps, are 
the spirits who, conscious of their own merit, 
saw wood in stern, puritanical style, wanting no 
assistance, determined to earn their own salva- 
tion ; and indignant with the Lord that they do 
not receive more of heavenly joy than other men. 
(n. 1 1 10, 4943.) 

Some, however, who are represented by the 
starch of wheat and rice, must be innocent and 
easily instructed, with a child-like sense of well- 
doing, only needing to have it clearly shown to 
them what they are in themselves, and how merci- 
fully the Lord has dealt with them. 

As the use of the spleen is to prepare the 
blood so that in the liver the pure, living portion 
may unite readily with the new chyle, and the 



I2 o PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

hard, unelastic particles may be separated and 
rejected, the spiritual work of the spleen of the 
mind is to examine the thoughts of the heart, 
and prepare them to unite readily with new 
ideas, affections, and satisfactions which come to 
us in our work and social intercourse with the 
community. In the spleen of the mind the 
thoughts are drawn out into a quiet chamber, 
apart from the busy circulation, and there the 
feelings and opinions that are beginning to make 
trouble are candidly inspected, and those elements 
which do not agree with the practical life of 
charity are detached from those that are alive 
and willing, and are made ready for speedy rejec- 
tion. Their hold upon the mind is loosened, so 
that when the opportunity for usefulness comes 
they are immediately given up. 

Minds in which this work is not well done, 
which adhere tenaciously to by-gones, and there- 
fore do not come into pleasant relations with new 
things that are both true and good, but are dis- 
posed to complain of evils which arise simply 



THE SPLEEN AND THE PANCREAS. I2 i 

from their own lack of sympathy and charity, 
are popularly called " spleeny " ; perhaps from a 
common perception or tradition of the uses of 
the spleen surpassing the medical science of the 
present day. 

The pancreas joins in the work of the spleen 
by setting aside from the current of thought, in 
regard to the good and true things we are lov- 
ing and receiving, all that is unnecessarily acri- 
monious and severe, reserving this for the com- 
placent enjoyment of natural kindliness, and the 
sense of superior merit and virtue, which need 
some rebuke, and sending forward sympathetic 
and friendly feelings which will enter heartily, 
without censoriousness, into good uses. 



THE OMENTUM. 



r I ^HE great omentum is a thin membranous 
bag, quilted as it were into little pockets 
which are filled with fat ; the whole suspended 
from the stomach and the transverse colon, and 
overhanging the intestines like an apron. A 
smaller and more delicate omentum is stretched 
between the stomach and the liver. And other 
still smaller omenta and epiploic appendages, all 
containing deposits of fat, occupy various crevices 
among the abdominal viscera. 

Through these omenta arteries ramify, which, 
when there is a superfluity of fatty material in the 
blood, deposit it in these convenient places, from 
which it may as readily be absorbed again in time 
of want. From their close relation to the lacteals, 
the mesentery, and the lymphatics of the liver, 
pancreas, and spleen, it is probable that they re- 
ceive temporary deposits from all these sources. 

122 



THE OMENTUM. 



123 



And these deposits they hold subject at all times 
to the demands of the liver, the great purveyor 
for the body ; for this purpose sending all their 
veins to the portal vein which carries to the liver 
its supplies. 

That the omentum has other secondary uses 
Swedenborg explains ; as protecting the viscera 
from changes of temperature, and distilling an oily 
vapor to lubricate the surfaces of the viscera, 
which are perpetually in motion over one another. 
But its chief use is this, of gathering in the 
superfluous elements of the nutrition of the body, 
which otherwise must be cast out ; and then, in 
time of need, furnishing freely from its stores 
whatever is wanted. The omenta, and also the 
other smaller reservoirs of fat, all share in this 
use. 

In the liver itself the surplus of sugar, or of 
starch which had been converted into sugar, is 
reduced to a form of starch called glycogen, and 
is stored for use as it is wanted. In the omen- 
tum fatty elements are similarly stored, and both 



124 



PHYSIOL GICAL CORRESPOXDENCES. 



deposits are reserves which can be drawn upon at 
any time for the uses of the body. 

In the chapter on the saliva it was shown that 
the change from starch to soluble sugar consists 
in the chemical combination of a little more water 
with the starch; and that in the application to the 
heavens this corresponds to the reception by new 
spirits of the knowledge that opens to them the 
way to heaven. So, in the reverse of the process, 
the reducing the sugar again to starch is equiva- 
lent to saying, "Wait a little; the place for you 
will be ready presently ; be content and wait 
patiently without thinking of particular uses in 
heaven, until the Lord calls you." The fat de- 
posited in the omentum is similarly reduced from 
the active state of an emulsion to a passive, wait- 
ing state, which would represent a return from 
more active spiritual to quiet, natural states. 
Therefore Swedenborg speaks of the omenta as 
representing exterior and interior natural good. 

As this function of the liver and the omentum 
is a permanent one, it seems possible that spirits 



THE OMENTUM. 



125 



are frequently detained in such quiet states for 
a while, perhaps until they can join friends who 
come later from the earth, or until the occasion 
for their full cooperation with angels is fully 
come. 

Unless specially instructed, we should not know 
that there could be in the spiritual world quiet 
resting-places for good spirits, where they may 
live happily until their final homes are prepared 
for them. But John says, — 

" I saw under the altar the souls of them that 
were slain for the Word of God, and for the testi- 
mony which they held ; and they cried with a loud 
voice, saying, ' How long, O Lord, holy and true, 
dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them 
that dwell on the earth ? ' And white robes were 
given unto every one of them ; and it was said 
unto them, that they should rest yet for a little 
season, until their fellow-servants also and their 
brethren, that should be killed as they were, should 
be fulfilled." (Rev. vi. 9, 10, 11.) 

These souls, Swedenborg says, were good spirits, 



126 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

"who were hated, reproached, and rejected by the 
evil on account of their life according to the truths 
of the Word, and their acknowledgment of the 
Lord's Divine Human, and were guarded by the 
Lord lest they should be led away. ... As they 
were under the altar it is manifest that they were 
guarded by the Lord ; for all who have lived any 
life of charity are guarded by the Lord lest they 
should be hurt by the evil ; and after a last judg- 
ment when the evil have been removed, they are 
released from the guards, and are taken up into 
heaven. After the last judgment I often saw them 
sent forth from the lower earth and transferred 
into heaven." (A. R. 325.) 

"The place where they were kept concealed is 
called the lower earth, which is next above the 
hells, under the world of spirits ; and there by 
communication with heaven and by conjunction 
with the Lord they are in safety. There are many 
such places ; and they live there cheerfully among 
themselves and worship the Lord ; nor do they 
know anything about hell. They who are there 
are from time to time taken up by the Lord into 
heaven after a last judgment ; and when they are 
taken up those who are meant by the dragon are 
removed. It has very often been given me to see 
them taken up and consociated with the angels in 
heaven." (A. R. 845.) 



THE OMENTUM. 



127 






Before the Last Judgment there were fictitious 
heavens which at the time of the judgment passed 
away. They who constituted this heaven, — 

" were seen upon mountains, hills, and rocks in the 
spiritual world, and hence they fancied themselves 
to be in heaven ; but they who thus constituted 
this heaven, inasmuch as they were only in an ex- 
ternal moral life, and not at the same time in in- 
ternal spiritual life, were cast down, and then all 
those who were reserved by the Lord, and con- 
cealed here and there, for the most part in the 
lower earth, were raised up and translated into the 
same places, that is, upon the mountains, hills, and 
rocks where the former heavens had been, and 
from these a new heaven was formed. They who 
had thus been reserved, and were then raised up, 
were from those in the world who had lived a life 
of charity, and were in spiritual affection for truth. 
. . . The elevation of such into the places of those 
who constituted the former heavens has been often 
seen by me." (A. E. 391. See also 392.) 

"The reason that the evil were so long tolerated 
upon the high places, and the good so long de- 
tained under heaven, was in order that both might 
be fulfilled or completed, that is, that the good 
misfht amount to such a number as to be sufficient 



1 2 8 PHYSIOL GICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

to form a new heaven, and also that the evil might 
fall down of themselves into hell." (A. E. 397.) 

"They who were under the altar received white 
robes, because those robes represented the pres- 
ence of the Lord with the Divine truth around 
them ; and the Lord by the Divine truth protects 
His own, for He surrounds them with a sphere of 
light from which they have white robes ; and when 
they are thus encompassed, they can be infested no 
more by the evil spirits who before infested them, 
in consequence of which they were hid by the 
Lord. The case is the same also with those who 
are raised by the Lord into heaven, who are thus 
clothed with white robes, which is an indication 
that they are in Divine truth, and so in safety." 
(A. E. 395.) 

Very similar things are said of those who were 
preserved in the safe places of the lower earth at 
the time of the first coming of the Lord, and who 
were then raised up by Him into the spiritual 
heaven. (See A. C. 6854, 7090, 8054.) 

Such quiet places, where hell is not known, and 
where the good dwell cheerfully together, cannot 
be in the intestines, through which evil is contin- 



THE OMENTUM. 



129 



ually passing, and where painful vastations are 
always going on. But the omentum covering the 
intestines, and the various deposits among them, 
are in nearly the same situation relatively to the 
stomach, and though very near the evil may not 
be at all disturbed by them. 

The deposits in the liver, also, though so near 
the evil in the gall-bladder, are perfectly protected 
from them, and may well represent a peaceful, 
gentle life in waiting for freer opportunities. 

Apparently the deposits in the omenta represent 
spirits like those carried by the way of the mesen- 
tery ; and the deposits in the liver other spirits 
like those carried in the portal vein. 

The province of the liver cannot strictly be 
regarded as in "the lower earth," since it is above 
the plane of the stomach. But Swedenborg's ex- 
pression is, that those who are reserved are "in 
great part," or "mostly" (plerique) in the lower 
earth ; which implies that they are partly else- 
where. 

The great omentum I understand to be "the fat 



13° 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



covering the intestines" in the Jewish sacrifices; 
and the smaller omentum, "the fat upon the 
liver"; of which last, Swedenborg says that it 
corresponds to a nobler, more interior good than 
the other, because it is connected with a nobler 
organ. (A. C. 10,031.) 

In an individual man the omenta must corre- 
spond to a memory of natural and spiritual good 
which is reserved for times of temptation and 
want. 



THE SUPRA-RENAL CAPSULES. 



* I "HESE are two conical caps upon the two 
kidneys. In embryos these capsules are as 
large as the kidneys ; but after birth they diminish 
considerably. 

They consist of a yellowish, cortical substance, 
composed of parallel tubes perpendicular to the 
surfaces, which are ramifications of superficial arte- 
ries, and lead inwards ; and an inner, dark-red, soft 
substance, in the cavity of which open the mouths 
of a vein much larger than the capsular arteries. 
They lie on either side close to the aorta, which 
brings the blood directly from the heart, and the 
vena cava, which returns it directly to the heart ; 
and at the point whence the arteries which supply 
the principal abdominal viscera go off from the 
aorta. 

Branches from several of these arteries ramify 
upon the capsules, as well as two small arteries 



132 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



of their own direct from the aorta. And one 
important use which they serve is to draw off 
and return immediately to the heart as much of 
the pure, good blood as is not needed by the 
lower viscera ; so that none shall be wasted or 
compelled to serve in unnecessarily low offices. 

The capsules are imbedded in a mass of fatty, 
cellular tissue, by which they are connected with 
the kidneys and with the cellular coat of the peri- 
tonaeum, which lines the whole abdomen. Through 
this cellular tissue circulates a useful serum de- 
rived from its arteries which is absorbed and again 
mingled with the blood by the capsules. This is 
the cause of the large size of their veins com- 
pared with that of their arteries. The reason that 
the capsules are so large before birth is that the 
streams of serum which after birth become defiled, 
and are sorted and purified by the pancreas, kid- 
neys, and other viscera, in the innocent state be- 
fore birth are not foul, but circulate in the viscera, 
forming them for their future uses, and are by no 
means to be cast out as worthless ; nor, indeed, 



THE SUPRA-RENAL CAPSULES. ^3 



are means of casting them out yet provided ; but 
they are gathered in and restored to the circula- 
tion by the capsules, — now necessarily large, soft, 
and active. 

These two uses, explained at length by Sweden- 
borg in the "Animal Kingdom," are thus described 
in the "Arcana" : — 

"There are also kidneys which are called suc- 
centuriate kidneys, and also renal capsules. Their 
office is not so much to secrete the serum, but the 
biood itself, and to transmit the purer blood to- 
wards the heart by a short circle ; thus to prevent 
the spermatic vessels, which are in the neighbor- 
hood, from carrying off all the purer blood ; but 
they perform their principal service in embryos 
and in new-born infants." (A. C. 5391.) 

And concerning those who constitute that prov- 
ince in the Greatest Man, we read, — 

" There are chaste virgins who constitute that 
province in the Greatest Man ; prone to anxieties 
and timid lest they should be disturbed, they lie 
quiet on the left part of the side beneath. If any- 
thing be thought concerning heaven, and anything 



134 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



concerning their change of state, they become 
anxious and sigh, of which it has sometimes been 
given me to be very sensible." {ibidem}} 

Their use is to prevent the thoughts from 
descending to ultimates and to things unclean, 
and to turn and return all thoughts to heavenly 
things in which they take delight. It is to be 
noticed that they lie just below the diaphragm, 
and stop the thoughts from descending further. 

It is not to be supposed that the same virgins 
occupy the province perpetually ; but a succession 
as they approach a marriageable age. No doubt 
there are with them persons of both sexes who 
are in the love of educating those in such states ; 
so that it is a province for the education of girls 
of a certain age. "They become anxious and 
sigh when heaven is thought of," because they 
fear lest they shall not be prepared for heaven, 
and fear also a loss of the influx of heavenly 
thoughts which are their life ; "they are troubled 
when anything not heavenly is thought of," and 
love especially innocent thoughts like those of 
infants. (S. D. 968-972.) 



THE SUPRA-RENAL CAPSULES. 



!35 



The corresponding province in the mind every 
one may detect in the conscientious faculty which 
anxiously prevents the thoughts from descending, 
and brings them back to pure interior subjects. 
It is the instinct of delicacy and modesty, regu- 
lating the flow of thought. The unusually large 
supply of nerves to the capsules has a correspond- 
ence with sensitiveness of this kind. 

It is by virtue of this faculty that what Sweden- 
borg calls "the chaste love of the sex" is possi- 
ble ; for it makes of the closure of the thorax a 
tight compartment which can be filled full with 
affection and pure and friendly thought between 
the sexes, without descending. (Comp. C. L. 44.) 

Immediately after passing the capsular arteries, 
the great stream of blood in the aorta is drawn 
upon by the renal arteries for the impure serum 
which is to be rejected by the kidneys. And, in 
like manner, after the capsules of the mind have 
done their duty in turning the thoughts upwards, 
impure thoughts are quickly excreted and rejected. 



THE KIDNEYS. 



TNDER the renal capsules, separated only by 
them from the diaphragm, on either side of 
the vertebral column, toward which their con- 
cave faces are turned, and lying about two hand- 
breadths apart, are the kidneys. 

Into their concave sides the large renal arteries 
enter, beginning their divisions and subdivisions 
even before they reach the surface of the kid- 
neys, and continuing them rapidly till their little 
branches ramify all over the exterior of the organs 
in company with equally minute veins. In close 
contact with these capillary vessels are multitudes 
of little glands and much convoluted tubes which 
form a layer about the kidneys and are continued 
into larger tubes. These larger tubes pass in- 
wards, uniting as they go, and terminating in little 
papillae, through which the excretion of the kid- 

136 



THE KIDNEYS. 



137 



neys is discharged into the basins at the head of 
the ureters. 

The arteries come off from the aorta just below 
the branches which supply the stomach, liver, 
spleen, and the mesentery, and the suprarenal 
capsules. These have withdrawn a considerable 
proportion of the thick and the fresh blood, and 
have left the stream polluted with an unwonted 
proportion of watery materials and superfluous 
salts. These the renal arteries suck in as their 
prey, and send it whirling through their capil- 
laries, into the convolutions of the renal glands 
and tubes, over pathways and through gates 
which none but the elastic living particles can 
pass, and from which the stale dying particles, 
slow and reluctant even with sharpest urging, are 
ignominiously rejected. (A. K. 288.) 

The living, purified blood returns through the 
veins and lymphatics to the heart. The worth- 
less serum is caught by the tubes which form 
the principal substance of the kidneys, and dis- 
charged through their papillae into larger cavities, 



138 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

whence it is expelled by contractions of the 
kidneys into the ureters, and conducted to the 
bladder. The attitude of all the parts towards it 
is that of expulsion. (A. K. 290.) 

Of those in the other life who belong to these 
provinces we read as follows : — 

" They who constitute the province of the kid- 
neys, ureters, and bladder, in the Greatest Man, 
are of such a genius that they like nothing better 
than to explore and search out the quality of others, 
and there are also some who desire to chastise and 
to punish, if only there be some justice in it. The 
functions also of the kidneys, ureters, and bladder 
are such ; for they explore the blood thrown into 
them to see if there be any useless and hurtful 
serum there, and also they separate it from the 
useful, and afterwards chastise it, for they drive it 
down towards the lower regions, and in the way and 
afterwards they agitate it in various ways. These 
are the functions of those who constitute the prov- 
ince of those parts. But the spirits and societies of 
spirits to which the urine itself, especially fetid urine, 
corresponds are infernal ; for as soon as the urine 
is separated from the blood, although it is in the 
little tubes of the kidneys, or within in the bladder, 



THE KIDNEYS. I39 



still it is out of the body, for what is separated no 
longer circulates in the body, hence it contributes 
nothing to the existence and subsistence of its 
parts." 

" I have often observed that they who consti- 
tute the province of the kidneys and ureters are 
quick to explore and search out the quality of 
others, what they think and what they will, and 
that they are in the desire of finding occasion to 
condemn, for the end especially that they may 
chastise ; and I have spoken with them concerning 
that desire and that end. Many of that kind, in 
the world, when they lived there, were judges; 
and then rejoiced in heart when they found cause 
which they believed to be just to fine, chastise, and 
punish. The operation of such is felt at the region 
of the back where are the kidneys, ureters, and 
bladder. They who belong to the bladder extend 
themselves towards hell (gehennam), where also 
some of them sit as it were in judgment." 

" The modes in which they explore or search 
out the dispositions of others, are very many, but 
it is permitted to present only the following. They 
induce other spirits to speak, which is done in the 
other life by influx, which cannot be described in- 
telligibly ; if then the induced speech is easily fol- 
lowed, they judge from it that the spirits are such ; 



140 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



they induce also a state of affection. But they 
who explore thus are among the grosser of them ; 
and others otherwise. There are some who as 
soon as they approach perceive immediately the 
thoughts, desires, and acts of another, also what 
he has done that he is ashamed of. This they 
seize upon, and, if they think there is just cause, 
they also condemn. It is wonderful in the other 
life, which scarcely any one in the world can be- 
lieve, that as soon as any spirit comes to another, 
and still more when he comes to a man, he instantly 
knows his thoughts and affections, and what he 
then was doing, thus all his present state, altogether 
as if he had been long with him, so perfect is the 
communication. But there are differences in these 
apperceptions ; some perceive interior things, and 
some only exterior ; these if they are in the desire 
of knowing explore the interiors of others by various 
methods. " 

"The modes in which they punish who consti- 
tute the province of the kidneys, ureters, and blad- 
der in the Greatest Man are also various ; for the 
most part they remove joyous and glad things, and 
induce such as are joyless and sad. By this pas- 
sion those spirits communicate with the hells ; but 
by the justness of the cause, which they seek for 
before they punish, they communicate with heaven. 



THE KIDNEYS. 



141 



Wherefore they are kept in that province/' (A. 
C. 5381-5384.) 

There is an evident correspondence between the 
mode of exploration here mentioned, and the most 
evident mode of the kidneys, — the flow of speech 
induced by the spirits corresponds to the currents 
induced in the little tubes, the forms of speech 
corresponding to the forms of the tubes. The 
forms no doubt are heavenly forms, and all who 
love heavenly thought flow into them readily and 
gladly, while those who are gross and selfish and 
worldly flow into them unwillingly, if at all, and are 
quickly condemned and cast out. 

" From these things it may appear what it sig- 
nifies that it is said in the Word that Jehovah 
searches and tries the reins and the heart ; also 
that the reins chasten, as in Jeremiah, * Jehovah 
that triest the reins and the heart ' (xi. 20). And 
again, 'Jehovah that triest the just and seest the 
reins and the heart ' (xx. 12). In David, 'The just 
God trieth the hearts and reins' (Ps. vii. 9). And 
again, ' O Jehovah, try my reins and my heart " 
(xxvi, 2). 'Thou hast possessed my reins ' (cxxxix. 



142 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES, 



13). In John, ' I am He Who trieth the reins and 
the heart ' (Apoc. ii. 23). By the reins there are 
signified spiritual things, and by the heart celestial ; 
that is, by the reins are signified those things which 
are of truth, and by the heart those which are of 
good. The reason is because the reins purify the 
serum, and the heart the blood itself; hence by 
trying, examining, and searching the reins is signi- 
fied'trying, examining, and searching the quantity 
and quality of truth or the quantity and quality of 
faith in man. That this is signified is also evident 
in Jeremiah, * Jehovah, Thou art near in their mouth, 
but far from their reins ' (xii. 2). And in David, 
' Behold, Thou desirest truth in the reins ' (li. 8). 
That chastening also is attributed to the reins, is 
also evident in David, ' My reins chasten me in the 
nights' (xvi. 7)." (n. 5385.) 

With the heart, as an organ of purification, are 
included the liver, gall bladder, spleen, and pan- 
creas, which unite with it in preparing the blood 
for the body. Even the mouth and the stomach 
belong to it as to this use (S. D. 1010; A. C. 
4791). By the mental faculties corresponding to 
this series of organs, the spirit should be freed 
from narrow, selfish, indolent feelings and thoughts, 



THE KIDNEYS. 



J 43 



also such as are vile and cruel, all of which are 
opposed to a life of charity. But the reins of the 
mind expose and separate from the current of 
thought false things, and such as being merely 
and pertinaciously natural prevent the mind from 
thinking spiritually ; also fallacious and deceitful 
reasonings, excuses, and pretences, designed to 
cloak a fault or a malicious intention. 

The love and the power to discern these things 
and separate them from our thoughts flow into 
our minds from the corresponding provinces of 
the Greatest Man. The angels of these provinces 
love to remove such things from heaven and from 
humanity, and wherever it will be received they 
give the ability. We receive it from them when 
we discern and condemn in ourselves anxious 
thoughts that are opposed to the Divine Provi- 
dence, unjust or fraudulent thoughts in relation 
to one another ; and, in general, any falseness 
toward God or man.* 



* Certain pirates and other deceitful and fraudulent persons cor- 
responding to urine are described in n. 5387-5390; the ways to 
hell by the bladder and by the intestines in n. 5380. 



THE PERITONEUM, 



r I ^HE peritonaeum is an extensive membrane, 
thick, soft, elastic, and on its inner surfaces 
very smooth, lining the walls of the abdomen, and 
by many folds and pockets investing its viscera. 
It unites in a common bond all the organs whose 
use it is to receive new elements for the nourish- 
ment of the body, to digest, strain, and prepare 
them for use, and to cast out all that refuse to 
be assimilated to the elements of the body ; also 
to purify and sort the blood itself, restoring to 
the circulation, purer, cleaner, and more lively, 
whatever is capable of restoration, and straining 
out and rejecting whatever is worthless. 

All these uses are parts of one use, — the proper 
nourishment of the body ; and the organs which 
perform them are combined in relations of mutual 
help and support by the peritonaeum. Besides 
serving as a common bond, the peritonaeum com- 

144 



THE PERITONEUM. 



M5 



municates to all the abdominal viscera the alter- 
nate expansions and contractions of the thorax, 
which are essential to the proper functions of 
every viscus, and are received by the peritonaeum 
through the diaphragm. 

It covers and adheres closely to nearly the whole 
of the under side of the diaphragm ; it applies 
its cellular coat to the liver, investing it closely, 
and even following the blood-vessels through its 
substance — its smooth, serous coat making easy 
the gentle, hepatic motions, and its connections 
with the diaphragm helping to support the liver 
in its proper place. As it passes to the stomach, 
it embraces the small omentum between its layers. 
It environs the stomach with a smooth, elastic 
coat, essential to its -free movements. It encloses 
in its duplicature the great omentum, protecting 
it perfectly from the intestines, which lie immedi- 
ately behind it. It sheathes the spleen and the 
pancreas ; imbeds the kidneys, the renal capsules, 
and the receptacle of chyle, in its thickened, cellu- 
lar coat. It surrounds the great, unruly colon, and 



146 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

holds it firmly in its place. It covers the small 
intestines, and within its folds offers a secure 
asylum for the mesenteric vessels and glands. 
It presses upon the bladder and the rectum, per- 
haps surrounding them with its cellular tissue, 
ready to concentrate all the power of the viscera 
upon them, and to assist in expelling their con- 
tents. It covers the uterus with a firm, elastic 
coat, and even extends a partial covering to the 
testicles. And it lines the whole of the front 
abdominal wall with a polished surface, within 
which the viscera move with perfect freedom, 
each according to its own nature. 

The peritonaeum, with its contents, may be re- 
garded as a single organ, the purpose of which is 
to prepare and purify nourishment for the body. 
Materials it receives through the oesophagus and 
the aorta ; these it digests, strains, and sorts, like 
one large, complex gland, sending its profitable 
results to the heart through the vena cava and 
the thoracic duct, and discharging the unprofitable 
through the rectum and the bladder. And the 



THE PERITONAEUM. 



147 



various abdominal viscera, by the aid of the peri- 
tonaeum, are enabled to act as one organ, harmo- 
niously, and with mutual support ; no part either 
unduly exalting itself, or lying idle through lack 
of its proper stimulus of supply, demand, and 
alternate motion. 

With this knowledge of the peritonaeum, we 
are prepared to see the truth of Swedenborg's 
description of the good spirits in the correspond- 
ing province of the Greatest Man : — 

" Certain spirits came to me, but they were 
silent ; still they afterwards spake with me, yet 
not as many, but all as one. I perceived from their 
discourse that they were such that they wished to 
know all things, and desired to explain all things, 
and thus to confirm themselves that it is so. They 
were modest, and said that they do nothing of 
themselves but from others, although it appears 
that it is from them. They were then infested by 
others ; it was said that it was by those who con- 
stitute the province of the kidneys, ureters, and 
bladder. They answered them modestly, yet still 
they infested and attacked them ; for such is the 
nature of those related to the kidneys. Wherefore, 



148 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

because they could gain no advantage against them 
by modesty, they resorted to something which was 
according to their genius, namely, to expanding 
themselves and thus terrifying. Hence they seemed 
to become great, but only as one, w T ho so enlarged 
his body that, like Atlas, he seemed to touch the 
heaven. There appeared a spear in his hand, but 
still he did not wish to do any harm except to ter- 
rify. In consequence the kidney spirits fled away. 
Then there appeared one who pursued them in 
their flight, and another who flew from in front 
between the feet of that great one ; and also that 
great one seemed to have wooden shoes which he 
threw at the kidney spirits. It was told me by the 
angels that those modest spirits who so enlarged 
themselves were they who relate to the peritonaeum. 
The peritonaeum is the common membrane which 
encompasses and includes all the viscera of the 
abdomen, as the pleura all the viscera of the thorax ; 
and because it is so extensive and respectively large 
and also expansible, therefore it is permitted them, 
when they are infested by others, thus to present 
themselves great in appearance, and at the same 
time to strike terror, especially towards those who 
constitute the province of the kidneys, ureters, and 
bladder ; for these viscera or vessels lie in the folds 
of the peritonaeum, and are compelled by it. By 



THE PERITONAEUM. 



149 



the wooden shoes were represented the lowest nat- 
ural things, such as the kidneys, ureters, and blad- 
der absorb and carry off. ... In saying that they 
do nothing of themselves, they also resemble the 
peritonaeum, which likewise is such." (n. 5378.) 

" It was also shown representatively how the 
case is when they who constitute the colon intes- 
tine infest those who are in the province of the 
peritonaeum. They who constitute the colon are 
puffed up, as the colon with its wind. When they 
wished to assail them, it appeared as if a wall were 
in the way ; and when they endeavored to overturn 
the wall there rose up always a new wall ; and thus 
they were kept away from them." (n. 5379.) 

The spirits of the peritonaeum must be numer- 
ous, closely connected, and of such a nature that 
the impressions made upon any of them are com- 
municated to all. Being intimately connected 
with the spirits who constitute the other abdom- 
inal provinces, and receiving impressions from 
them, they react upon them all, supporting them 
in their work, providing safe conduct from one 
province to another, conveying information of the 
common weal to all the parts, and uniting the 



!5° 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



efforts of all to furnish for the whole heaven 
good and well-instructed accessions, freed from 
the idle, vicious, and corrupt. They have no inde- 
pendent plans and wishes of their own, but have 
a strong love for all who are engaged in this 
use ; and by holding to them all with generous 
and just appreciation, they compel them to work 
together as a band of brothers for a common 
purpose. 

They combine all the parts of the great prov- 
ince whose function it is to prepare new spirits 
for heaven, and to separate from the heavens 
the evil. It is a work not of the most elevated 
kind, being mostly performed upon the interior 
natural plane ; but it is a work of vital impor- 
tance to the whole heaven and to every society 
of it. 



THE HEART AND THE LUNGS. 



T^HE heart is the motive power by which the 
blood is sent on its errands of usefulness 
to all parts of the body. Towards the heart varied 
streams of fluid from all directions wend their 
way. From the liver comes a great stream of 
purified, sugary fluid, gathered from the digestive 
organs, and loaded with nutritious elements from 
the food, selected and sorted and partly trained 
to the motions of the body, ready to be put to 
useful service. Other great streams descend from 
the head, bringing, as Swedenborg believed, the 
freshest results of spirit and lymph from the labo- 
ratory of the brain ; and side by side with one of 
them flows the stream of chyle and lymph brought 
up from the receptacle by the thoracic duct. And 
besides all these elements, there are the weary 
currents returning from the limbs and from the 
muscular system of the whole body, bringing the 



*5 2 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



results of labor and experience, and greatly in 
need of straining and replenishing. 

A motley throng of materials, unacquainted, 
unaccustomed to one another's ways and quali- 
ties, yet of abundant good-will and ability to serve, 
are brought by various channels to the heart, and 
from them the heart is expected to prepare and 
send forth a fresh, lively, elastic, homogeneous 
blood, ready for any good, human use which may 
be required of it. 

In order that it may rightly perform this excel- 
lent use, the heart needs the lungs as a means 
of discriminating among the materials furnished 
to it, separating those vapors and aerial elements 
that are unserviceable, and receiving others that 
are serviceable ; and it consociates the lungs with 
itself in its work, submitting to their discernment, 
for correction or encouragement, every particle of 
blood that it receives. 

The heart is composed of four chambers; the 
upper pair thin, the lower, thick and muscular. 
The upper two serve as reception rooms in which 



THE HEART AND THE LUNGS. 



153 



the blood may be received and collected during 
the contractions of the lower pair. The blood 
comes up through the veins in a quiet, steady 
current ; but of necessity it is driven out of the 
heart in pulses. Therefore lest the veins should 
be burst by the closing of the doors during the 
contractions of the heart, ante-rooms are provided, 
in which the blood can accumulate, ready to fill 
the stronger chambers instantly when the doors 
are opened with cordial invitation. 

The first ante-room is called the " right auricle," 
and the first propelling chamber the " right ven- 
tricle." To the auricle come first all the streams 
that enter the heart ; and after mingling there a 
moment they are passed on to the ventricle with 
gentle urgency, and thence with a strong impulse 
are sent through the pulmonary arteries to the 
capillaries of the lungs. These capillaries ramify 
in the w r alls of air chambers at the extremities 
of the bronchial tubes. 

Of exquisite thinness though the walls of these 
air chambers are, they still are double, and find 



J 54 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



room between their layers for the minute blood- 
vessels, which thus spread out, almost in contact 
with the air, all the treasures of the heart. With 
a wise discernment all their own, the delicate 
membranes, in accordance with the desires of the 
blood, absorb for its benefit pure oxygen, and a 
considerable amount of fragrant exhalations and 
vapors which serve to enrich the blood; and, on 
the other hand, they invite the blood to give up 
and reject the fouler, grosser gases and vapors 
with which it came laden, which they then pass 
out to the general atmosphere. 

Brighter in color, more lively in motion, and 
rather less in bulk, the blood returns from the 
lungs, through the pulmonary veins, to the left 
auricle of the heart, where it waits a moment for 
the doors of the ventricle to open. Then invited 
by the ventricle, it presently is sent forth upon 
its manifold errands of usefulness, with a strong, 
sustaining impulse which follows it, and whose 
repetitions are forcibly felt in all the capillaries 
of the body. Nor is it now in itself an unwilling, 



THE HEART AXD THE LUXGS. 



J 55 



sluggish stream. It responds to the impulse of 
the heart with an elastic bound, and as it goes 
forward it presses upon the door of every gland 
and cell and muscular fibre, for opportunity to do 
good. Neither does it ask in vain ; but is every- 
where received with welcome according to its 
quality and the uses that are needed in the 
several provinces. 

Every part of the body is hungry for the mate- 
rials necessary for its own nutrition, or for the 
exercise of its functions ; and in various w r ays it 
makes its hunger felt, even to the desire of the 
body for food. It is difficult not to believe that 
this hunger makes an effective requisition both 
upon the reserved supplies in the body and upon 
the newly prepared nutriment ; and that when the 
heart dismisses its richly endowed companies, con- 
taining so many elements eager for opportunities 
to employ their faculties, straightway each is drawn 
and invited towards the organ that needs it most ; 
that the noblest blood ascends to the head ; that 
streams rich with fibrinous elements hasten to the 



15 6 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 

muscles of the body and limbs ; that the more 
sluggish, adhesive blood descends to the spleen, 
and that which is poor and serous to the kidneys ; 
and that thus to every member and gland the ele- 
ments best suited to it are despatched by the 
impulse given from the heart, supplemented and 
directed by the organ itself. 

We have followed the good spirits from the 
earth through their introduction into the spiritual 
world ; and the subsequent opening of the inte- 
riors of their minds, and the separation from evil ; 
and then through the places of instruction in 
which they are prepared for heaven. After this 
state is completed, Swedenborg says, "they are 
then clothed with angelic garments, which for 
the most part are white as of fine linen, and thus 
they are brought to the way which tends upwards 
towards heaven, and are delivered to the angel 
guards there, and are afterwards received by other 
angels, and are introduced into societies, and into 
many gratifications." 

The "angel guards there," I understand to be 



THE HEART AND THE LUNGS. 



x 57 



at the doors of the heart ; the " other angels" by 
whom they are received, and the societies into 
which they are introduced, seem plainly to be 
those of the chambers of the heart and the lungs ; 
and the gratifications there enjoyed are those of 
angels' love and wisdom. 

"Next," Swedenborg continues, "every one is 
led by the Lord into his own society, which also 
is effected by various ways, sometimes by wind- 
ing paths. The ways by which they are led are 
not known to any angel, but to the Lord alone. 
When they come to their own society their inte- 
riors are then opened ; and since these are con- 
formable to the interiors of the angels who are in 
that society, they are therefore instantly acknowl- 
edged and received with joy." (H. H. 519. See 
also A. C. 1381.) 

To the heart of the heavens the new spirits 
come rejoicing in their salvation, and in the won- 
derful things which they have learned of heavenly 
life. And there they find themselves in the very 
centre of the angels' sense of the goodness of the 



I S 8 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

Lord, and of their desire to do good from Him. 
Angels who are like love itself in form, receive 
them with affection so innocent and warm that 
their own hearts are melted, and they too are 
filled with a sense of the infinite goodness of the 
Lord as strong as they can bear ; and at the 
same time with an equally strong desire to do 
good in every possible way to others, because this 
is the nature of the love which they receive from 
the Lord. 

But first the love inspires them with desire to 
know what they may do, and to find the means 
of doing good wisely ; by the love itself, whose 
influence they receive, they are urged to the prov- 
ince of the lungs, into the society of angels who 
introduce them into the very wisdom of heavenly 
life, and "into interior perception and heavenly 
freedom " (n. 3894^). These are angels who are 
in clear perception of wisdom from the Lord, who 
perceive instantly the quality of every affection, 
and its agreement or disagreement with the pure 
truth by which the Lord would guide the life of 



THE HEART AND THE LUNGS. 



[ 59 



the heavens. Such perceptions they communicate 
to the angelic spirits who come to them, opening 
the inner joys and possibilities of usefulness of 
the heavenly love which is given them, and caus- 
ing them to see and reject whatever of grosser, 
natural thought and desire still clings to them. 
And then again they return with new intelligence 
and zeal into a state of love for the goodness of 
the Lord, and for doing good from Him ; coming 
now under the influence of those who receive 
most fully the Lord's love for the whole heaven 
and for every part of it, and His desire to do 
good to all. Under their influence, inspired from 
their love with the desire to do all that they are 
capable of doing to bless at least a few in their 
Father's heaven, the angelic spirits once more go 
forth from the heart of the heavens to find their 
home and their use. Towards those who are 
interiorly in similar good, and who therefore will 
most enjoy what they can bring them, the inte- 
riors of their life are irresistibly drawn ; and to 
them they go infallibly, the Lord opening the 



160 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

way. Arriving at the gates of their own society, 
they are recognized as members of the society 
who have been already doing its work upon the 
earth, of whose coming the society was warned 
by the angels of the tongue on their very 
first entrance into the spiritual world, whose 
approach they have assisted in every possible 
way, and whom they now welcome as brothers 
and sisters, sharing with them all their joys. The 
new angels in turn recognize the life of the soci- 
ety as that which has given them their inmost 
satisfaction upon earth, though then perceived 
obscurely, — the life for which they have interiorly 
been yearning, and which now fills their cup to 
overflowing, more than satisfying their desire. 
The angels, too, seem like brothers and sisters, 
who come to them at once as their dearest friends. 
But they have not come merely to receive ; the 
impulse of the heart of heaven is upon them still. 
Friends and homes and every good thing that 
love can suggest are provided for them ; but the 
best thing of all is good work, helpful to all these 



THE HEART AND THE LUNGS. jd 

kind friends, perfectly suited to their capacities, 
which they find waiting for them to do. 

And not only the pulses of the heart, the respi- 
rations of the lungs, too, follow into every home 
in the heavens. 

" For the lungs by their respiration act upon the 
ribs and the diaphragm, and through these, by 
means of ligaments and through the peritonaeum, 
upon all the viscera of the body throughout, and 
likewise upon all its muscles, and not only involve, 
but also thoroughly enter them, and so thoroughly 
that there is not the smallest part of the viscera 
nor of a muscle, from the surface to the inmost, 
which does not derive something from the liga- 
ments, consequently from the inspiration. . . . 
The heart itself, besides its own, has also a pul- 
monary motion ; for it lies upon the diaphragm 
and in the bosom of the lungs, and coheres and is 
continued to them by its auricles. In like man- 
ner also what is respiratory passes into the arteries 
and veins" (D. W. in A. E. vi.). "From these 
considerations an attentive eye may see that all 
living motions, which are called actions, and exist 
by means of muscles, are effected by the coopera- 
tion of the motion of the heart and of the motion 



162 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

of the lungs which is in each, both the general 
motion which is external, and the particular motion 
which is internal ; and he who is clear-sighted may 
also discover that these two fountains of the motions 
of the body correspond to the will and the under- 
standing, since they are produced from them. This 
has been also confirmed from heaven, where it was 
given me to be present with the angels, who pre- 
sented this to the life. They formed a likeness of 
the heart and a likeness of the lungs, with all the 
interior and exterior things of their contexture, by 
means of a wonderful and inexpressible flowing into 
circles, and they then followed the flow of heaven ; 
for heaven has a tendency to such forms, by virtue 
of the influx of love and wisdom from the* Lord. 
Thus they represented all the particulars which are 
in the heart and all the particulars of the lungs, 
and likewise their union, which they called the 
marriage of love and wisdom. And they said that 
the case is similar in the universal body and in 
each of its members, organs, and viscera, with the 
things which are of the heart therein and which 
are of the lungs therein ; and that when they do 
not both act, and each take its turn distinctly, 
there cannot be any motion of life from any volun- 
tary principle, nor any sense of life from any intel- 
lectual principle." (ibidem?) 



THE HEART AND THE LUNGS. 



With every society and every angel of heaven, 
in correspondence with these things, the impulses 
of the heart of heaven continually inspire love 
from the Lord ; and the respirations of the lungs 
of heaven constantly interpret this love in forms 
of useful love to the neighbor. For the heart sup- 
plies the fluid and the pressure by which every 
gland and fibre is filled ; and from the lungs is 
continued the sheathing by which the quality of 
the fluid received is determined, and the alternate 
motion of expansion and contraction by which 
reception is effected ; and the sheaths of the 
fibres are continued into the tendons by which all 
motion is directed. (D ; W. x. 4.) 

Swedenborg says, — 

" It was given me to perceive the general opera- 
tions of heaven as manifestly as any object is per- 
ceived by any of the senses. There were four 
operations which I then perceived. The first was 
into the brain at the left temple, and was a general 
one as to the organs of reason ; for the left part of 
the brain corresponds to things rational or intellec- 
tual, but the right to affections or things voluntary. 



1 64 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

The second general operation which I perceived, 
was into the respiration of the lungs, which led my 
respiration gently, but from within, so that I had 
no need to draw breath, or respire, by any exertion 
of my will. The respiration itself of heaven was 
then manifestly perceived by me. It is internal, 
and on that account imperceptible to man ; but by 
a wonderful correspondence it flows into man's res- 
piration, which is external, or of the body, and if 
man were deprived of this influx he would instantly 
fall down dead. The third operation which I per- 
ceived, was into the systole and diastole of the 
heart, which had, on the occasion, more of softness 
with me than I had ever experienced at any other 
time. The times of the pulse were regular, about 
three within each turn of respiration ; yet such as 
to terminate in and regulate the lungs and what 
appertains to them. How the alternate changes 
of the heart insinuated themselves into the alter- 
nate changes of the lungs, at the close of each res- 
piration, I was in some measure able to observe. 
The alternations of the pulse were so observable 
that I was able to count them ; they were distinct 
and soft. The fourth general operation was into 
the kidneys, which also it was given me to per- 
ceive, but obscurely. From these things it was 
made manifest that heaven, or the Greatest Man, 



THE HEART AND THE LUNGS. 



165 



has cardiac pulses, and that it has respirations ; and 
that the cardiac pulses of heaven, or the Greatest 
Man, have correspondence with the heart, and with 
its systolic and diastolic motions, and that the respi- 
rations of heaven, or the Greatest Man, have corre- 
spondence with the lungs and their respirations ; 
but that they both are unobservable to man, being 
imperceptible, because internal." (A. C. 3884.) 

On another occasion, he says, — 

" It was given me to "observe the general respira- 
tion of heaven, and what its nature was. It was 
interior, easy, spontaneous, and corresponding to 
my respiration as three to one. It was also given 
me to observe the reciprocations of the pulses of 
the heart. And then I was informed by the angels, 
that all and each of the creatures on the earth de- 
rive thence their pulses and their respirations, and 
that the reason why they take place at dissimilar 
moments, is because both the cardiac pulse and the 
pulmonary respiration which exist in the heavens, 
pass off into something continuous, and thus into 
effort, which is of such a nature as to excite those 
motions variously according to the state of every 
subject." (n. 3885.) 

" But it is to be known that the variations as to 
pulses and as to respirations in the heavens are 



166 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 

manifest, and that they are as many as all the soci- 
eties ; for they are according to the states of thought 
and affection with the angels, and these are accord- 
ing to their states of faith and love ; but with re- 
spect to the general pulse and respiration, the case 
is as above described." (n. 3886.) 

" In heaven, or in the Greatest Man, are two 
kingdoms, one of which is called celestial ; the 
other, spiritual. The celestial kingdom consists of 
angels who are called celestial, and these are they 
who have been in love to the Lord, and thence in 
all wisdom ; for they are in the Lord, and are 
thereby in a state of peace and innocence, more 
than others. They appear to others like infants, 
for a state of peace and innocence presents that 
appearance. Everything there is as it were alive 
before them ; for whatever comes immediately from 
the Lord is alive. This is the celestial kingdom. 
The other kingdom is called spiritual. It consists 
of angels who are called spiritual ; and they are 
those who have been in the good of charity toward 
the neighbor. They place the delight of their life 
in this, that they can do good to others without 
recompense ; it is recompense to them to be allowed 
to do good to others. The more they will and de- 
sire this, in so much the greater intelligence and 
felicity are they ; for, in the other life, every one 



THE HEART AND THE LUNGS. 



167 



is gifted with intelligence and felicity from the 
Lord according to the use which he performs from 
the affection of the will. Such is the spiritual 
kingdom. They who are in the Lord's celestial 
kingdom belong all to the province of the heart ; 
and they who are in the spiritual kingdom belong 
all to the province of the lungs. The influx from 
the celestial kingdom into the spiritual is similar to 
the influx of the heart into the lungs, as also to 
the influx of all things which are of the heart into 
all which are of the lungs ; for the heart rules in 
the whole of the body and in all its parts, by the 
blood-vessels, and also the lungs in all its parts by 
the respiration. Hence there is everywhere in the 
body as it were an influx of the heart into the 
lungs, but according to the forms there, and accord- 
ing to the states. Thence exists all the sensation 
as well as all the action which are proper to the 
body." (n. 3887.) 

The correspondence of the heart and the lungs 
in an individual man, is with his love of doing and 
his love of wisdom ; or, with his will and his un- 
derstanding. "In the spiritual world," Sweden- 
borg tells us, " the quality of one's faith is known 
by his breathing, and the quality of his charity by 
the beating of his heart." (D. F. 19.) 



1 68 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 

Every man naturally loves to live a selfish and 
worldly life, and also to think things that agree 
with such a life. But by instruction every one 
becomes capable of thinking what is truer and 
better ; and if he takes home such thoughts to 
his heart, he makes his love wiser and better. 
By wisdom he cleanses his love from its foulness 
and grossness, and introduces it to spiritual and 
celestial delights ; therefore by wisdom, if it be 
applied to the love, the love itself becomes spirit- 
ual and celestial. (D. L. W. 422.) 

Of this, Swedenborg writes as follows : — 

" Man is born into evils, and hence he loves cor- 
poreal and worldly things more than celestial and 
spiritual things ; consequently his life, which is 
love, is depraved and impure by nature. Every 
one may see from reason that this life cannot be 
purified except by the understanding ; and that it 
is purified by spiritual, moral, and civil truths, 
which constitute the understanding. Wherefore, 
also, it is given to man to be able to perceive, and 
to think affirmatively such things as are contrary 
to the love of his will, and not only to see that 
they are so, but also, if he looks up to God, to be 



THE HEART AND THE LUNGS. ^9 

able to resist, and thereby remove the depraved 
and filthy things of his will, which is the same 
thing as being purified. This may also be illus- 
trated by the defecation of the blood in the lungs. 
That the blood admitted there from the heart is 
defecated, is a thing known to anatomists from 
this consideration, that the blood flows from the 
heart into the lungs in greater abundance than it 
flows back from the lungs into the heart; also that 
it flows in undigested and impure, but flows back 
refined and pure ; also that in the lungs there is a 
cellular texture into which the blood of the heart 
presses out by separation its useless particles, in- 
jecting them into the little bronchial vessels and 
ramifications ; also that . . . the vapor in breath- 
ing is from that source. From which considera- 
tions it is evident that the faeculent blood of the 
heart is purified in the lungs. By these considera- 
tions what was said just above may be illustrated, 
inasmuch as the blood of the heart corresponds to 
the love of the will, which is the life of man, and 
the respiration of the lungs corresponds to the per- 
ception and thought of the understanding, by which 
purification is effected. 

" The life of the understanding also perfects and 
exalts the life of the will, because the love of the 
will, which constitutes man's life, is purged from 



170 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



evils by means of the understanding, and man, 
from being corporeal and worldly, becomes spirit- 
ual and celestial, in which case the truths and 
goods of heaven and of the church are grafted in 
his affection, and nourish his soul ; thus the life 
of his will is made new, and from it the life of his 
understanding becomes new, so that each is per- 
fected and exalted. This is effected in the under- 
standing and by it ; but from the will ; for the will 
is the man himself. This likewise is confirmed by 
the correspondence of the lungs and the heart; for 
the lungs which correspond to the understanding, 
not only purge the blood of its feculent particles, 
as was before observed, but also nourish it from the 
air ; for the air is full of volatile elements and odors 
homogeneous with the matter of the blood ; and 
there are likewise innumerable plexuses of the blood- 
vessels in the pulmonary lobules, which, according 
to their wont, absorb the neighboring waves, in con- 
sequence whereof the blood becomes fresh and 
bright, and is rendered arterial, such as it is when 
conveyed from the lungs into the left ventricle of 
the heart. That the atmosphere nourishes the pul- 
monary blood with new aliments is evident from 
much experience ; for there are some breezes which 
are injurious to the lungs, and some which recreate 
them, thus some which are hurtful, and some which 



THE HEART AND THE LUNGS. I7I 



are salubrious. . . . From these considerations it is 
evident that the pulmonary blood derives nourish- 
ment also from the atmosphere. Thus also the life 
of the understanding perfects and exalts the life of 
the will according to the correspondence. ,, (D. W. 
x. 3-) 

But if the love refuses to take to itself the 
admonitions and friendly counsel of wisdom, pre- 
ferring filthy ideas and gross thoughts, it makes 
of the understanding a mere purveyor of these 
things, and drinks them in, to its own further 
defilement. 

And then, in correspondence with this, the man 
at least in the spiritual world loves to breathe into 
his lungs the vile odors that correspond to such 
thoughts, and to defile his blood with them. Of 
this, Swedenborg teaches, — 

"That the blood in the lungs purifies and nour- 
ishes itself correspondently to the affections of the 
mind, is not yet known, but it is very well known 
in the spiritual world ; for the angels in the heavens 
are delighted only with the odors that correspond 
with their love of wisdom, whereas the spirits in 



172 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 



hell are delighted only with odors that correspond 
with love opposed to wisdom ; the latter odors are 
stinking, but the former odors are fragrant. That 
men in the world impregnate their blood with simi- 
lar things, according to correspondence with the 
affections of their love, follows of course ; for what 
a man's spirit loves, that, according to correspond- 
ence, his blood craves and attracts in respiration. 
From this correspondence it follows that a man is 
purified as to his love, if he loves wisdom, and that 
he is defiled if he does not love her ; all a man's 
purification being effected by the truths of wisdom, 
and all his defilement by the falses that are opposed 
to them." (D. L. W. 420. Also D. P. end.) * 



* For "animal heat," compare Dalton, p. 257. and D. L. W. 379. 
For the " blood globules," see Littell, 1477. For the details of the 
conjunction between heart and lungs, and their correspondence, see 
D. L. W. 404. 



THE NOSE. 



r I ^HE lungs absorb aerial food composed of pure 
air and the exhalations and odors of innumer- 
able mineral, vegetable, and animal bodies. This 
food is even more important to the life than 
the grosser food which is received through the 
stomach. If the supply be cut off even for a 
few minutes, the body dies ; though it will endure 
privation from solid and liquid food as many days. 
The aerial food is also varied in quality very much 
more than the other ; and the state of the body, 
especially of the brain and the delicate fluids, de- 
pends noticeably upon that quality — upon the 
cleanness or uncleanness of the atmosphere, and 
upon the odors and exhalations which it bears in 
it — whether they be fresh, rich, and stimulating, 
or corrupt, foul, and stupefying. 

At the entrance of the passage to the stomach 
the mouth stands guard, with its sense of taste. 



174 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 



And at the entrance to the lungs the nose is 
stationed, instructed in its use, and intelligent 
through its sense of smell. 

The mouth tastes the liquid food that is brought 
to it, and dissolves in its own fluids portions of 
the solid food that it may taste them also ; the 
purest and most acceptable portions it drinks in 
through its own little tubes and veins, and fore- 
warns the whole digestive apparatus of the nature 
of the coming aliment, that it may open its pores 
to receive it freely. It also closes to refuse admit- 
tance to such as is excessively distasteful, or rouses 
the stomach to reject that which may be swal- 
lowed. And so the nose tastes the atmosphere 
with the various aliments contained in it, dissolv- 
ing a part in its own fluids, and absorbing a 
small part of them, at the same time notifying 
the lungs of the quality of the approaching breath, 
and preparing all the air cells to receive it rightly. 
The tongue, "as an organ of taste," Swedenborg 
tells us, " corresponds to the natural perception 
of good and truth, but the smell corresponds to 
spiritual perception." (A. E. 990.) 



THE NOSE. 



175 



If the atmosphere be agreeable in quality, and 
altogether suitable for nourishment, the nose opens 
wide to receive as much as possible, encouraging 
the lungs, also, to expand their little chambers 
and breathe in freely the healthful odors, which it 
transmits to them warmed and moistened with a 
vapory saliva. By the combined effect of the 
opening of the nose and the expansion of the 
lungs, the air is drawn freely through the upper 
part of the nose where the olfactory nerves are 
distributed, that the pleasant refreshment may be 
more fully recognized and received. 

But if the air be laden with pungent or putrid 
exhalations, the veinlets and even the nostrils con- 
tract to shut it out ; a peremptory warning is sent 
likewise to the lungs, so that they may either 
refuse to admit it at all, or may expand .with 
caution, drawing the air slowly through the lower 
nasal passages, and holding themselves ready to 
check it entirely, or to expel, by convulsive cough, 
any particles of unendurable foulness or acridity. 

Besides these peculiar functions of the nose 



iy6 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

analogous to those of the mouth, the nose coop- 
erates with the mouth in its discernment of the 
quality of food. The mouth alone, by its exquis- 
ite touch, perceives the quality of saline, sugary, 
and other comparatively coarse particles ; but the 
volatile, aromatic flavors or odors are not clearly 
distinguished by the papillae of the tongue, but 
are instantly recognized by the nose. They are 
faintly perceived as the food is presented to the 
lips, and the perception has much to do with the 
state of reception induced upon the lips and 
tongue and other parts of the mouth. Within the 
mouth these subtile elements seem to be freely 
liberated — assisted, perhaps, by the warmth and 
moisture — so as to affect sensibly the back part 
of the mouth, the pharynx, and even the nose 
itself with a sort of compound sense which is at 
least as much smell as taste. It is this which 
Swedenborg ascribes to spirits instead of taste : — 

" I have discoursed with spirits concerning the 
sense of taste, which they said they had not, but 
that they had something whereby they nevertheless 



THE NOSE. I77 



know what taste is ; which they compared to smell, 
but were not able to describe. This brought to my 
recollection that taste and smell meet in a kind of 
third sense ; as appears also from animals, which 
examine their food by the smell to discover whether 
it be wholesome and suitable for them." (A. C. 

1516.) 

From the frontal sinuses superfluous mucus is 
discharged into the upper part of the nose. The 
eyes also discharge their tears upon its lining 
membranes ; and its own mucous follicles furnish 
it with additional moisture. These varied fluids 
are distributed over the undulating surface of the 
inner nose, where their watery vapors moisten 
pleasantly the entering atmosphere, and the viscid 
fluids hold fast to every particle of dust, and carry 
it whither they themselves are hastened by the 
cilia lining the nose, through the oesophagus and 
stomach to the intestine. 

The objects upon which the sense of the nose 
is exercized are the air and the various odors and 
spheres that mingle with it. That the amount 
and variety of these spheres are very great is 



i 7 8 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 

evident from the fact that every existing thins; is 
giving forth a sphere composed of its own parti- 
cles. We are aware of a very strong sphere, 
pleasant or unpleasant, from certain animals, also 
from some plants, their flowers, fruits, leaves, or 
wood ; from a few minerals and metals, also, as 
from copper, iron, and sulphur. Other animals, 
endowed with more exquisite sense than we, be- 
cause their life is confined to the body, perceive 
distinctly odors which to us are obscure ; as the 
sheep the odors of the plants upon which it feeds ; 
the dog the faint odors of footsteps upon the sand 
or grass, even hours after they have passed. That 
this immense amount of exhalation is scarcely at 
all detected by chemistry proves nothing; for chem- 
istry takes cognizance of only the grossest forms 
of matter, and most of the aerial and etherial 
fluids with which we are now concerned are above 
its reach. 

In the chapter on the lungs, we saw that the 
breathing corresponds to the purification of the 
life by thinking the truth and applying it to our 



THE NOSE. 



179 



affections and natural desires. Swedenborg says 
that the air corresponds to "all things of percep- 
tion and thought " (A. R. 708). The pure air 
must correspond to pure, abstract wisdom of 
thought, and may be compared to the spirit of 
truth. Spirit also means breathy or wind ; and 
the various exhalations with which the air is 
laden correspond to the spheres of as many 
states of life, which come to us as perceptions 
or thoughts of those states. Spheres of life are 
made sensible in the other world by odors, which, 
Swedenborg teaches, " spirits perceive much more 
exquisitely than men" (A. C. 15 14); and, "what 
is wonderful, odors correspond to those spheres." 
He gives many instances of particular odors, with 
the spheres to which they correspond, — 

"The spheres of charity and faith, when they are 
perceived as odors, are most delightful ; they are 
pleasant odors, as of flowers, lilies, spices of vari- 
ous kinds, with indefinite variety." (n. 15 19.) 

"I perceived a winey odor, and was informed 
that it was from those who from friendship and 
lawful love speak courteously, but so that there is 



180 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

truth in their compliments ; this odor is with much 
variety, and is from a sphere of beautiful manners." 
(n. 1 5 17.) 

" They who have cultivated eloquence for the 
end that all things may contribute to admiration of 
themselves, when their sphere is made odorous, it 
is like the smell of burnt bread;" because the 
instruction is like bread, and the zeal of self-love 
burns it. " They who have indulged in mere 
pleasures, and have been in no charity and faith, 
the odor of their sphere is excrementitious." 
" Where men have lived in violent hatred, re- 
venge, and cruelty, their sphere, when changed 
into odors, has the stench of a dead carcass. 
Such as have been immersed in sordid avarice 
give forth a stench like that of mice" (n. 1514). 
But he says that spheres are not always made 
sensible as odors, but these are " variously tem- 
pered by the Lord, lest the quality of spirits 
should always appear before others." (n. 1520.) 

By these odors of life the minds of spirits and 
angels are exhilarated and delighted; the good 



THE NOSE. 



with the pleasant fragrances of good life, and the 
evil with the stenches of evil life ; and they are 
to them manifest perceptions of the life of those 
whom they meet. 

In the province of the nose we shall find those 
who excel in such perception. Not the taste, nor 
the touch, nor even the sight can give so true a 
revelation of the interior quality of substances 
presented to it, as the nose ; and they who con- 
stitute this province in the Greatest Man, must 
enjoy unerring perception of the quality of the 
lives and inner thoughts of those to whom their 
attention is directed. 

"To that province belong those who are in gen- 
eral perception, so that they may be called Percep- 
tions. The smelling, and hence its organ, corre- 
sponds to them. Hence also it is that to smell [a 
thing out], to get scent of, to be keen-scented, and 
also [especially in Latin, quick] nostrils are predi- 
cated in common speech of those who divine a 
matter accurately, and also who perceive; for the 
interiors of the expressions of man's speech derive 
many things from correspondence with the Greatest 



1 82 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

Man, because man as to his spirit is in society with 
spirits, and as to his body with men." (n. 4624.) 

" They who relate to the interiors of the nostrils 
are in a more perfect state as to perception than 
they who relate to their exteriors. ... It is per- 
mitted to relate these things concerning them. 
There appeared to me as it were a bath with long 
seats or benches, and heat was exhaled from it. 
There appeared there a woman, who presently dis- 
appeared in a darkening cloud ; and also children 
were heard, saying that they did not wish to be 
there. Afterwards some angelic choirs were apper- 
ceived, who were sent to me for the sake of avert- 
ing the efforts of certain evil spirits. And then 
suddenly above the forehead appeared little open- 
ings greater and less through which there shone 
beautifully golden light ; and in that light within 
the openings women in snowy white were seen. 
And there again appeared little openings in another 
order, through which they who were within looked 
out ; and again other little openings through which 
the light did not thus pass. At length a brighten- 
ing: light was seen. It was said to me that there 
were the homes of those who constituted the prov- 
ince of the inner nostrils, for they were of the female 
sex, and that the keenness of perception of those 
who are there is represented in the world of spirits 



THE NOSE. 



183 



by such openings ; for the spiritual things in heaven 
are represented by natural, or rather by such things 
in the world of spirits as are like natural. After- 
wards it was permitted to speak with them, and 
they said that by those representative openings 
they can see exactly the things which take place 
below ; and that the openings appear turned to 
those societies which they are trying to observe ; 
and because then they were turned to me, they said 
that they could perceive all the ideas of my thought, 
and also of those who were about me. They added 
further that they not only perceived the ideas, but 
also saw them variously represented to them, as 
the things of affection for good by appropriate 
little flames, and those of affection for truth by 
variations of light. They added that they saw cer- 
tain angelic societies with me, and their thoughts 
[represented] by things variously colored, by pur- 
ples as in embroidered tapestry, and also by rain- 
bows in a darker plane, and that thence they per- 
ceived that those angelic societies were from the 
province of the eye. Afterwards other spirits were 
seen who were cast clown thence and dispersed 
hither and thither of whom they said that they 
were such as had insinuated themselves among 
them for the sake of perceiving something, and of 
seeing what went on below, but for the purpose 



1 84 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

of ensnaring. This casting down was observed 
as often as angel companies approached, with 
whom also I conversed. They said that those who 
were cast down relate to the mucus of the nostrils, 
and that they are heavy and stupid and also with- 
out conscience, thus altogether without interior 
perception. The woman who was seen, as men- 
tioned above, signified such ensnarers ; with whom 
also it was permitted to speak, and they wondered 
that any one has conscience ; they were utterly 
ignorant what conscience is, and when I said that 
it is an interior apperception of goodness and truth, 
and if anything is done contrary to that appercep- 
tion that it causes anxiety, they did not understand 
it. . . . The light was then shown me in which 
they live who relate to the interiors of the nostrils ; 
it was a light beautifully varied with veins of golden 
flame and of silver light ; affections for good were 
there represented by the veins of golden flame, 
and affections for truth by the veins of silver light. 
And it was shown further that they have openings 
at the side, through which they see as it were the 
heaven with stars in the blue. And it was said 
that in their rooms the light is so great that the 
mid-day light of the world cannot be compared 
with it. It was said moreover that the heat with 
them is like vernal warmth upon the earth ; and 



THE NOSE. 



185 



that there are also children with them, but children 
of some years ; and that they are not willing to be 
there when those ensnaring women, or mucuses, 
approach." (n. 4627.) 

Among the objects to which these keen percep- 
tions direct their attention, are the new spirits 
coming from the earths, who at their entrance into 
the other life are received by the lips. At their 
first approach, while the lips still wait to receive 
them, their real quality is perceived in a general 
way by the angels of the nose ; and lips and 
mouth and stomach, and indeed all provinces of 
the body, are notified, and prepared accordingly. 
In the further exploration of their quality, when 
the interiors of the memory are opened in the 
province of the mouth, the same angels assist ; 
though not manifestly present, they perceive the 
spheres of the life, as it is opened, and add their 
more interior perception to the knowledge of fact 
and form acquired by the tongue. 

From the earths themselves, where this food 
for the heavens is growing, ascend odors of the 



1 86 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES, 

spiritual quality of the people upon them, which 
come to the manifest perception of the angels of 
the nose ; thus we are told that from a wife who 
is tenderly loved, the angels perceive a sphere 
which is sweetly fragrant. (C. L. 171.) 

To the hells likewise these angels direct their 
attention, and to any part of the heavens or world 
of spirits which needs such attention ; and by 
their perception the whole man is instructed, 
admonished, or encouraged, and assisted in its 
general efforts to remove evil, and to promote 
the growth of all things of heavenly life. 

Besides the duty of perceiving and notifying 
the body of the quality of odors which come to 
its sense, the nose has a more constant duty 
of receiving, tempering, aud transmitting to the 
lungs the pure air of heaven. As odors corre- 
spond to the spheres of life of individuals or soci- 
eties, the pure air corresponds to the sphere of 
the Lord's life, as accommodated to the state of 
the heavens ; it is the pure wisdom of the Divine 
thought, which shows what is absolutely true and 



THE NOSE. !8 7 



wise. The purity of this truth the nose perceives 
and delights in ; but it needs to be tempered and 
still further accommodated to the general life of 
the heavens, before it can be received without 
causing injurious discouragement. And this the 
angels of the nostrils perform by means of the 
abundant knowledge of the states of the body 
which they possess, and which is represented by 
the moisture of the nose. With such knowledge 
they temper the application of the pure truth of 
thought which they admit, and thus prepare it for 
ready acceptance by the lungs. Grosser thoughts, 
and spirits who embody them, who desire pure 
truth for selfish purposes, and not for the uses 
of heavenly life, also necessarily intrude, but are 
detected and quickly thrust down to the world of 
spirits, and then below. 

Similar uses to these which are done for the 
whole heaven by the angels of the nose are per- 
formed for each society by angels appointed for 
the purpose ; for, Swedenborg says, — 



1 88 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

" Each society is an image of the whole ; for 
what is unanimous is composed of so many images 
of itself. The more comprehensive societies, which 
are images of the Greatest, have particular societies 
within themselves, which have like correspondence. 
I have sometimes conversed with those who, in the 
society into which I was sent, belonged to the prov- 
ince of the lungs, of the heart, face, tongue, ear, eye, 
and with those who belonged to the province of 
the nostrils, from whom also it was given to know 
their quality, namely, that they are Perceptions ; 
for they perceived whatever happened in the soci- 
ety in general, but not so particularly as they who 
are in the province of the eye ; for these latter dis- 
tinguish and consider the things which are of per- 
ception. It was also given to observe that their 
faculty of perceiving varies according to the gen- 
eral changes of state of the society in which they 
are." (A. C. 4625.) 

Every angel, spirit, and man possesses, in some 
degree, the same faculty, which is the faculty of 
perceiving what is abstractly true and wise, and 
also of perceiving truly the spheres of human life 
which are presented ;, and it does not deny the 
use for which the faculty was intended, that it 



THE NOSE. 



189 



may be employed to search out the spheres of 
foul life, and thoughts of unwisdom. 

The things which have been said of the nose 
relate especially to the sensitive lining of it. Be- 
sides this, the great body of the nose is composed 
of cartilages and bones which protect the nerves 
and expand and support the membranes in the 
forms and positions which are necessary to their 
uses. The angels who are in these parts of the 
nose of the Greatest Man hold strongly and firmly 
to the right and duty to examine all the spheres 
of life that come to it, and to admit to the 
Heavenly Man the sphere of the Lord's genuine 
truth. 

The same parts in an individual correspond to 
his hold of the right to think for himself as to 
the agreeableness or disagreeableness to him of 
states or spheres of life and thought. Hence a 
prominent nose indicates a certain degree of inde- 
pendence of thought and opinion. 

In animals the same faculty appears as the fac- 
ulty of examining and exploring, chiefly for the 



190 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



sake of finding appropriate food. It is a more 
prominent faculty in them than in man, and is 
embodied in long noses, snouts, or probosces. 
The elephant, in which the development of the 
nose is most remarkable, corresponds to a love of 
justice. His ivory tusks, from which the throne 
of Solomon was made, correspond to the truth by 
which appearances are stripped off, and the real 
life is exposed ; and the wonderful trunk repre- 
sents a perception of real quality, of genuineness, 
or of sham. 



THE ORGANS OF SPEECH. 



"\~\ 7E have studied the nose and the lungs in 
their relation to breathing, and the mouth 
in its use of eating. Let us now attend to their 
common use of speaking, in which the larynx and 
trachea are added to them, and indeed with a 
leading part. 

The larynx lies behind and below the promi- 
nence in the throat called the "Adam's apple." 
This prominence consists of a large cartilage, 
closed in front but open behind. Just within 
the open edges behind, and extending below, lies 
another large cartilage ; and across the space be- 
tween the Adam's apple in front and the top of 
the second cartilage in the rear are stretched two 
membranous chords called the vocal chords. These 
are attached in front to the middle of the Adam's 
apple, just where we feel a depression ; but behind 
they are attached not immediately to the other 

191 



192 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



large cartilage, but to the edges of two little car- 
tilages which are hinged upon the great cartilage. 
Resting upon this great cartilage, these little car- 
tilages, as they open and shut, open and shut also 
the vocal chords, to regulate the amount of air 
that passes to the lungs ; and the two great car- 
tilages play upon each other in such a way as to 
tighten or loosen the chords, and so to vary the 
pitch of the voice. 

There are several little muscles by which these 
motions are effected ; and some muscular fibres 
are said to be attached to the vocal chords them- 
selves, to regulate their length of vibration, like 
fingers upon a violin string. 

The tension alone of these chords produces no 
sound ; but when they are made tense, and the 
lungs also arouse themselves and forcibly puff 
upon the chords, they instantly respond with a 
sonorous tremble, like the reed of an organ-pipe, 
or the strings of an aeolian harp. Then, the horse- 
shoe-like cartilages of which the trachea or wind- 
pipe is composed, and the scarcely less sonorous 



THE ORGANS OF SPEECH. 



*93 



elastic membrane by which they are connected 
together and their circle is completed, all join in 
the audible vibration, like the pipe of an organ 
when its reed is blown upon. The tense lungs, 
also, elastic and made to delight in every kind of 
aerial motion and vibration, resound like the body 
of a viol, with a tremble in which the lining 
membranes of the chest, and even the ribs and 
the very skin, are compelled to join, and which is 
communicated by elastic fluids and tissues to the 
extremities of the body. From the larynx the 
vibration extends upward, affecting all the parts 
contiguous to the breathing passages, — namely, 
the pharynx, the palate, tongue, teeth, and lips, 
the nose, and the sinuses of the forehead ; indeed, 
the whole skull and the brain partake of the con- 
tagious thrill, and join in the song or speech. 
Nor is their part merely that of passive spectators 
carried away by enthusiasm ; they all contribute 
to the quality of the tone, each one modifying it 
in its own way, as we see plainly in regard to the 
nose, teeth, tongue, and lips, and as would appear 
from the other organs observed attentively. 



i 9 4 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



There are two kinds of modifications to which 
vocal utterances are subject, one affecting the 
quality of the tone as to force, pitch, harshness, 
or tenderness, and the other producing the articu- 
lations of speech. The lungs, trachea, larynx, 
nose, and hones of the head, are concerned espe- 
cially with the first class, producing and modify- 
ing the tone of the voice ; the lips and teeth, the 
palate, and especially the tongue, are principally 
instrumental in forming words. In singing, tone 
predominates ; in speaking, articulation ; yet the 
words of speech are imperfect unless filled with 
sonorous sound from the lungs and larynx ; and 
the tones of singing are incomplete until shaped 
by the mouth. 

The lungs, in their office of breathing, corre- 
spond to the love of perceiving and thinking truth 
in its application to the affections ; or, in the 
Greatest Man, to the states of life of the heavens. 
In other words, they correspond to the faculty of 
exploring our own affections and ends, and purify- 
ing and correcting them according to the pure 



THE ORGANS OF SPEECH. 



!9S 



truth from the Lord. And it is meet that the 
organ which corresponds to the faculty of knowl- 
edge of the affections and ends, should express 
that knowledge by means of the very air which 
corresponds to the truth by which the exploration 
is made. As vocal organs, therefore, the lungs 
correspond to the love of confessing the thoughts 
of the heart. In the heavens it is the love of 
confessing to the Lord, or from the Lord to men 
and angels, the thought and the affection of the 
heavens. 

"There were angelic choirs," Swedenborg re- 
lates, " which praised the Lord together, and this 
from gladness of heart. Their praise was heard 
sometimes as very sweet singing; for spirits and 
angels have sonorous voices, and hear one another 
as men do ; but human singing, as to the sweetness 
and harmony, which were heavenly, is not compa- 
rable to that. From the variety of the sound I 
perceived that there were many choirs. I was in- 
structed by the angels who were with me that they 
belonged to the province and uses of the lungs ; 
for they have song, because this office belongs to 
the lungs ; this also it was given to know by ex- 



196 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



perience. It was permitted them to rule my res- 
piration, which was done so gently and sweetly, 
and also interiorly, that I felt my respiration scarcely 
at all. I was further instructed that they who are 
assigned to the involuntary respiration are distinct 
from those assigned to the voluntary. It was said 
that they who are assigned to the involuntary res- 
piration are present while man sleeps ; for as soon 
as a man goes to sleep, the voluntary control of his 
respiration ceases, and the involuntary takes it up." 
(A. C. 3893-) 

On another occasion, to correct the unfavorable 
opinion which spirits from the planet Jupiter had 
formed of the spirits from our earth, choirs of the 
angels from this earth came to them, one after 
another. " Choirs," he explains, "are when many 
think, speak, and act one thing together, in a con- 
tinuous series ; the celebration of the Lord in 
the heavens is for the most part by choirs .... 
Those choirs so greatly delighted the spirits of 
Jupiter who were with me, that they seemed to 
themselves to be caught up into heaven. That 
glorification lasted about an hour. It was given 



THE ORGANS OF SPEECH. I97 



me to feel their delights which they derived from 
it, which were communicated to me. They said 
that they would tell it to their friends who were 
elsewhere." (A. C. 8115.*) 

To the larynx are related those members of the 
community in heaven and on earth whose love it 
is to catch the shades of affection which come to 
them, and express them by modulations of tone. 
The larynx is the only musical instrument in the 
body ; and the things that relate to the musi- 
cian's art, which is strictly the art of expressing 
affection by sound, are there concentrated. A 
true musician is not led by his ears but by his 
affection ; the tones that agree with this he seizes, 
whether they are sweetest to the ears or not. He 
will be true to his feeling in his playing and 
in composing. As he writes, his throat sings 
silently ; and his ears, possessed by the same affec- 
tion, hear the silent music, and help to guide the 
throat. If orchestras and choirs are added they 

* For an account of a general glorification in the heavens, see 
C L. 81. And for further details about choirs, A. C. 3350, 3351. 



l 9 8 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

are only developments of the larynx, carrying out 
its efforts ; in which case the original musician is 
like the sensitive and moving fibres of the larynx, 
and the rest are like the masses of muscle, carti- 
lage, and ligament which compose its principal 
substance. 

The part which the lungs have in this expres- 
sion in the individual and the Greatest Man, is to 
furnish the breath, that is the thought, modified 
by the life of the man, and full of its heart- 
throbs. They represent the inspiration of exalted 
thought and feeling, springing from the life of 
the community, which they of the larynx put into 
form 

Other organs that are interested in the recep- 
tion of the breath, as the nose and the mem- 
branes and passages connected with it, partake 
of the resonance of the expired air ; and no doubt 
the angels of the corresponding provinces in 
heaven join sympathetically and joyfully in the 
sonorous thought of the lungs of the heavens. 

They themselves sought and examined the truth 



THE ORGANS OF SPEECH jgg 



which furnishes the means of thinking ; and they 
share in the delight of expressing the truth. 

To this the lips, teeth, palate, and especially 
the tongue, contribute defmiteness of articulation, 
which corresponds to distinctness and definiteness 
in the expression of thought, especially from the 
love of instructing. 

"They who correspond to the mouth," Sweden- 
borg says, " continually wish to speak ; for in speak- 
ing they find the greatest pleasure. When they 
are perfected, they are brought to this, that they 
do not speak anything but what is of use to their 
companions, to the community, heaven, and the 
Lord. The delight of speaking thus is increased 
with them as the lust of regarding themselves in 
their speech, and of seeking wisdom of their own, 
perishes." (A. C. 4803.) 

No argument is needed to show that if the 
whole heaven ever speaks as one man, it is 
through those who are in the province of the 
mouth ; and that if either of the heavens, or any 
society in heaven, should so speak, it would be by 
those related to it in this manner. 



200 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

Now, the whole heaven does speak to man, or 
the Lord through the heavens ; for He speaks 
His Word to man, and He speaks it not immedi- 
ately, but through the heavens ; thus by degrees 
accommodating it to man, and forming in it the 
various heavenly senses. On this subject very 
much might be quoted from Swedenborg ; but one 
passage will suffice : — 

"The Lord spoke through heaven with John, and 
He also spoke through heaven with the prophets, 
and through heaven He speaks with every one 
with whom He speaks. The cause is that the 
angelic heaven in the general is as one man, whose 
soul and life is the Lord ; wherefore all that the 
Lord speaks, He speaks through heaven, as the 
soul and mind of man through his body. . . . But 
I will declare this mystery : the Lord speaks through 
heaven ; but still the angels there do not speak, 
and do not even know what the Lord speaks, unless 
there be some of them with the man, through whom 
the Lord speaks openly from heaven, as with John 
and some of the prophets. For the influx of the 
Lord through heaven is like the influx of the soul 
through the body ; the body indeed speaks and 
acts, and also feels something of the influx ; but 



THE ORGANS OF SPEECH. 2 oi 

still the body does not do anything from itself as 
of itself, but is acted upon. That the speech and 
all the influx of the Lord through heaven with man 
is of such a kind, it has been given me to know by 
much experience." (A. R. 943. See also 6982, 
6996, 8443, 4677 end, 10033 en d, 8899, 5 121, A. C.) 

Usually the Word of the Lord seems to have 
been spoken by " an angel of the Lord"; but 
sometimes by "a great voice out of heaven " with- 
out the presence of an individual. In either case, 
it is from the Spirit of the Lord filling the 
heavens, and expressing His thought and affec- 
tion through those who are in the organs of 
speech. During the scenes of the Last Judgment, 
no doubt Swedenborg had a great deal of experi- 
ence of the ways in which the Lord speaks in the 
world of spirits. 

Returning now to the use of the mouth in 
receiving food, we remember that it corresponds 
to the use of receiving new spirits into the heav- 
enly kingdom, and, more generally and abstractly, 
to the love of gathering in their experiences of 
the providence and goodness of the Lord ; for it 



202 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

is only that which men receive and live of the 
goodness and wisdom of the Lord, that is food to 
the heavens. The two uses of the mouth, there- 
fore, are as closely related as sowing and reaping ; 
for the Sower soweth the Word, and the harvest 
is the ripened lives of men. "Twin offices," Swe- 
denborg calls them — "the office of serving speech, 
and that of serving nutrition " ; and he adds : "as 
far as the tongue serves nutrition, it corresponds 
to the affection of knowing, understanding, and 
being wise in truths ; wherefore, also, sapicntia, 
wisdom, and sapcrc, to be wise, are from sapor, 
taste ; and, as far as it serves speech, it corre- 
sponds to the affection of thinking and producing 
truths." (A. C. 4795. See also 4791.) 

Even the silent angels whose special office it 
is to prepare the spirit to be raised from the 
body, and thus to receive additions to the heavens, 
as they sit quietly by his head look into his face 
with the effort to communicate their own thought, 
which relates to eternal life in heaven ; and this 
is the means of doing: their use. 



THE ORGANS OF SPEECH. 



203 



The influence of the angels of the mouth into 
our minds produces therefore not only the love 
of obtaining useful knowledge, which corresponds 
to the love of receiving food, but also the love of 
bringing the thought into good form for expres- 
sion ; or, more simply, to the love of speaking, of 
communicating knowledge, and of teaching. (See 
A. C. 6987.) 

In any company or society of persons associated 
for some use, there are many w T ho have some per- 
ception of what should be done ; but it is usually 
the case that a few speak for the rest, and ex- 
press their thoughts for them. The feelings and 
perceptions of the many correspond to the action 
of the heart and the lungs, and perhaps other 
interior organs ; and the expression of these feel- 
ings and perceptions in form, to the action of the 
mouth. Hence, we not unfrequently call one who 
speaks, a mouth-piece for others. And if there 
are any who only wait for the conclusion, that 
they may know what is to be done, they are like 
hands and feet to the company. 



204 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



In ancient days, before men learned to speak by 
words, they expressed their feelings and thoughts 
by changes of the face, and especially by delicate 
motions of the lips, which in innocent persons are 
still so expressive. They were taught by angels 
by similar changes of the face ; and their teachers 
also were from the province of the mouth, and 
particularly from that of the lips. (See A. C. 4799.) 



THE PLEURA. 



"V\ 7HAT the peritonaeum is to the abdominal 
cavity, the pleura is to the thorax. It is the 
common bond of all the organs and vessels which 
the thorax contains ; and its office is to hold each 
in its place with the utmost freedom of motion, 
and at the same time to impart to each the 
motions and wants of the whole ; so that each 
may accommodate itself to the necessities of the 
others, and all may be combined in due propor- 
tion in the common use. 

The heart and the lungs are not made inde- 
pendent of support through the nobleness of their 
office. The other parts of the body depend upon 
them ; but there is no organ upon which these do 
not depend for the means of doing their use. 
Especially do they need the immediate and con- 
stant support of the pleura. 

The heart lies between the great lobes of the 

205 



2 o6 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

lungs ; but its action is not synchronous with that 
of the lungs ; it expands and contracts three or 
four times during one respiration ; and, without 
some means of accommodation, in dilating it would 
press upon air-cells when they too were in the 
effort to expand, and the action of both would be 
impeded. Again, the heart to contract freely and 
uniformly, must be maintained in the same rela- 
tive position during all the changes and motions 
of the body ; and still it must not be attached 
and bound except at the base, where it gives forth 
the arteries and veins. And, further, the lungs 
must be maintained in their proper position, and 
not allowed in state of collapse to fall upon the 
heart or to suffer displacement ; and in their place 
they must be protected from the ribs, and provided 
with the means of working without friction, freely 
and smoothly. 

Other needed uses will be mentioned hereafter ; 
but these are plainly required, and to perform 
them is the duty assigned to the pleura. 

One can hardly avoid a feeling of affection for 



THE PLEURA. 



207 



the friendly ministry of one part of the body to 
another ; and for none is the feeling stronger than 
for the modest service of the pleura, which does 
not pretend to be of the least importance itself, 
but just helps others to be important, and does 
for them essential service, perfectly, constantly, 
and without the slightest intrusion. 

In itself it is composed of two membranes, one 
thick and fibrous, the other smooth, glossy, and 
moist. By its fibrous coat it applies itself closely 
to the lungs, covering every convolution perfectly, 
yet elasticaliy, and entering between the little 
lobes even to the minutest air-cells, as if to be in 
sympathy with and give protection to its inmost 
thoughts. Its strong outer coat at the same time 
invests the lungs with an almost metallic smooth- 
ness, which is rendered more perfect by constant 
lubrication with delicate oils. 

From the base of the lungs the pleura is re- 
flected upon itself, and forms two membranous 
bags loosely enclosing again the already encased 
lungs. The fibrous membrane of these bags, next 



208 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

the walls of the thorax, attaches itself closely to 
the ribs, and extends its little fibres among the 
intercostal muscles, even to the fatty tissues of 
the chest, while the harder, smooth coat presents 
inwards a polished surface for the investing coat 
of the lungs to play upon. Thus their easy 
motion is secured. 

On the lower wall of the thorax the pleura 
unites with the diaphragm, by the flexibility of 
which it is enabled to apply its well-oiled coat 
even to the hollow inner walls of the lobes of 
the lungs, giving them the support they need to 
keep them always in position, but not imposing 
the slightest restraint upon their free motion. 

Between the great lobes the membranous walls 
of these bags unite, forming a partition in the 
chest, extending from the breast-bone to the back- 
bone ; but in this partition the two walls part, and 
leave space between them for a roomy closet for 
the heart, which is thus suspended in its place 
between the folds of the pleura. And in order to 
protect the heart and the lungs still further from 



THE PLEURA. 209 



mutual annoyance, still another fold of pleura, or, 
as some hold, a little pleura by itself, forms an 
inner bag of smoothest surface, and loosely en- 
closes the heart ; which is thus separated from the 
lungs by two spaces and four thicknesses of mem- 
brane. 

Besides achieving this apparently impossible 
duty of giving to these active organs the closest 
and most intimate support without in the least 
affecting their freedom, and holding them closely 
related in their common work but preventing any 
chance of mutual irritation, the pleura through 
smaller chambers between its folds, behind that 
of the heart, furnishes safe conduct to the oesoph- 
agus on its way to the stomach, to the great 
aorta as it descends to distribute the life blood to 
the lower viscera and members, to the great as- 
cending vein also and the chyle duct ; and it im- 
parts to them all — and by means of the dia- 
phragm, to the lower viscera also — the alternate 
motions of the lungs — motions of alternate recep- 
tion and action, which are essential to their life 
and usefulness. 



210 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

Many subordinate duties the pleura performs ; 
but these are its chief and governing uses. 

As the province of the peritonaeum is held by- 
angels of simple quality (n. 5378), not active of 
themselves but readily acting from others, and 
above all things loving harmony, so the angels of 
the pleura are modest angels delighting in the 
harmony of the uses of the heart and the lungs. 
To the angels of these provinces they attach 
themselves closely, rendering them every support 
and assistance. With ready sympathy and affec- 
tion for both, they interpose to receive and accom- 
modate their strong but not coincident activities ; 
for the impulses of affection and the thoughts of 
wisdom are not synchronous ; they need to be 
accommodated to each other by intermediates who 
respect and love them both. They interpose also 
between these and the rougher, less sensitive 
angels, who, holding merely to the facts of the 
use and necessity of these vital organs, are like 
stony walls of protection to them, and constitute 
the ribs of the Greatest Man; but who would 



THE PLEURA. 



grate harshly and injuriously in immediate contact 
with the angels who are so full of the love of 
doing the Lord's will that they are unwilling to 
think of themselves, and those who are intent 
upon applying the Lord's wisdom to the life of 
the heavens, and cannot bear to be reminded of 
their own importance. The support and protec- 
tion of the facts they bring them, without disturb- 
ing their unselfish activity; and from full sympa- 
thy with their life, they impress it upon all comers, 
new and old, who pass within their domain. 

Our admiration for the pleura is admiration for 
these modest, unselfishly useful angels ; or, for the 
generous, devoted love for ministering to others 
which these receive from the Lord. Other organs 
of the body partake, even in a greater degree, of 
the spirit of mutual service ; and in that service 
they all are images of angels' love, and of the 
Lord's multiform love of serving, which creates 
heaven and earth, and is the life of every part of 
them. 



THE DIAPHRAGM. 



'THHE diaphragm forms a partition between the 
thorax and the abdomen. Its upper side con- 
sists of the lower part of the pleura, its lower side 
of the upper part of the peritonaeum. These two 
membranes come into immediate contact and close 
union in the central part of the diaphragm, in 
three spots which are likened to the lobes of a 
clover leaf ; but from this centre there radiate 
bundles of muscular fibres between the mem- 
branes, to the line of attachment at the extremi- 
ties of the ribs ; two large bundles of fibres reach 
well down the lumbar vertebrae. 

When the muscular fibres are relaxed, the dia- 
phragm extends up like a dome into the thorax, 
lying close to the compressed lungs ; and then 
the liver, and some other organs of the abdomen, 
lie partly above the line of the ribs in the thorax, 
and are then in a state of expansion. But when 



THE DIAPHRAGM. 213 



the muscles of the diaphragm contract, they bring 
down the dome, expand the cavity of the chest, 
and press the abdominal organs out from it, in- 
ducing upon them their turn of contraction. 

When the chest is in its state of expansion, it 
draws in the air from without, and also the fluids 
of the body from within, sucking upon every vein 
and lymphatic; and, as the viscera of the abdomen 
are at the same time compressed, they freely yield 
up their fluids to the demand of the thorax. And 
when the thorax contracts, it presses upon arte- 
ries, lymphatics, and veins, hastening the depart- 
ure of the streams ready for the nourishment of 
the body, and retarding the return currents ; and 
as the abdomen is at that time in a state of 
expansion, its vessels gladly seize the opportunity 
to fill themselves full. Liver, spleen, pancreas, 
kidneys, and even the stomach and intestines 
depend upon this alternate motion for their power 
of usefulness ; and their common container, the 
peritonaeum, secures this motion to them by unit- 
ing itself with the pleura in the diaphragm. 



214 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



We have, then, on the one side the pleura, 
loving its trust of serving the heart and the 
lungs, enjoying the free motion of the lungs, 
and desiring to extend its delightful animations ; 
and on the other hand the peritonaeum, caring 
for the common wants of the digestive organs, 
and here desiring for them the active life of 
the lungs, and the preparation which that activ- 
ity ensures to receive the fresh streams of blood 
from the heart. And these two make a compact 
to help each other in this common use ; and they 
unite almost as one membrane in the centre of 
the diaphragm, availing themselves of the assist- 
ance of many urgent fibres to bring their purpose 
into effect. 

Swedenborg's common statement is that the 
middle heaven includes the body from the neck 
to the knees ; but the image seen by Nebuchad- 
nezzar was as to the breast and arms, of silver, 
as to the belly and thighs of brass, and the legs 
and feet were of iron. This was a representative 
of the successive churches, and consequently of 



THE DIAPHRAGM. 



2I 5 



the heavens formed from them (n. 10,030), and it 
marks strongly the division between the chest 
and the abdomen. 

Also in T. C. R. 119, he says that the highest 
heaven is the head, the second is the breast, the 
lowest is the gastric region, and the church on 
earth is the loins and feet. Perhaps this last 
statement refers to the heaven before the Lord's 
coming, when there was no Christian heaven, and 
the ancient was imperfectly formed. 

Swedenborg says nothing about the angels of 
this province of the Greatest Man ; but their 
quality is mirrored in the uses of the organ. 
They are intermediates between the spiritual and 
the natural heavens, — between the angels whose 
delight it is to perceive and appropriate spiritual 
wisdom from the Lord, and to cherish and exer- 
cise the love of heavenly uses to the neighbor, 
and the angels whose duty it is to receive new 
spirits whose spiritual minds are not yet open, to 
separate the evil from the good, and to train the 
good to habits of right thought and action. 



216 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

These intermediates on the one hand delight in 
the activity of spiritual thought and affection, and 
on the other in the use of preparing new angels 
to receive that thought and affection. Each class 
loves first its own use, and then that of the 
other ; for the use of each is indispensable to 
the other. There is no purpose in the action of 
heart and lungs, unless their influence be received 
beyond their own province ; and there is no sat- 
isfaction in preparing spirits to receive the life of 
heaven, unless heavenly wisdom and love, which 
constitute that life be abundantly provided. And 
in order that any use may be accomplished in 
either domain, there must be submission to the 
universal law of all created beings, alternate recep- 
tion and communication, expansion, and contrac- 
tion ; which the lungs, as is becoming to the 
province of wisdom, perceive most clearly, and by 
means of the diaphragm impress upon all their 
associates. 

Into this alternation, and thus into the respira- 
tion of the heavens, all good spirits are introduced 



THE DIAPHRAGM. 



217 



in the province of the lungs (n. 3894) ; they are 
continued in it by the animations of the lungs 
extended to the remotest parts of the body, and 
the degree of their vitality and usefulness depends 
upon the degree in which they partake of this 
animation. 



MUSCLES IN GENERAL. 



nr^HE power of the body is exerted by the 
muscles, — which represent the love of work 
in the mind, and, in the heavens, societies of those 
who love the active uses corresponding to those 
. of the muscles respectively. Thus, the diaphragm 
is not a passive means of communication between 
the thorax and the abdomen ; its active force is 
essential both to the motions of the lungs and to 
the communication of those motions to the rest 
of the body. And the muscles of the diaphragm 
correspond to the angels who have active pleas- 
ure in the animations of wisdom and in the com- 
munication of them through the heavens. They 
combine and exert an animating pressure upon the 
provinces of digestion, inviting the expansion of 
the lungs ; which, without this powerful coopera- 
tion, would be greatly confined in their action, as 
in cases of rheumatism of the diaphragm. 

218 



MUSCLES IN GENERAL. 2 ig 



The heart itself is almost wholly muscular, and 
they who constitute it are in the active love of 
communicating love from the Lord to all whom 
they can influence, and sending them forth to do 
the uses of love. So all the active force exerted 
by the hands and feet, by the mouth in receiving 
food and in speaking, and by all parts of the body 
in their several uses, is exerted by muscles ; which, 
accordingly, represent the active zeal of the prov- 
inces for those uses. 

In these activities many angels combine, and 
exert their influence as a one. " How many 
spirits," Swedenborg says, " concur in one action, 
was shown me by those who are in the muscles 
of the face, from the forehead even to the neck. 
... It was observed that they were only the 
subjects of very many, so that in every muscular 
fibre very many concur. ... In heaven, or the 
Greatest Man, there are innumerable societies thus 
unanimous, to which the muscles correspond. ,, 
(D. S. Index. " Musculus.") 

But the muscles exert their force mostly through 



220 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

tendons, or tendinous sheaths, by which they are 
attached to bones or to other parts of the body, 
and direct their action. And these tendons or 
ligaments correspond to passive subjects, who love 
indeed to receive the influence and to communi- 
cate it, but do not themselves modify it. 



BONES, 



HPHE least living parts of the body are the 
bones, which are composed largely of earthy 
material, and seem to have a use like that of the 
rocks in nature; that is, they serve as a basis 
and fulcrum for the softer parts, keeping them ex- 
tended and in their right places, and serving also 
for protection to the organs that specially need 
protection. 

The rocks, and likewise the bones, correspond 
to the fixed facts upon which all other elements 
of mental life depend ; and, in the Greatest Man, 
the provinces of the bones are occupied by those 
who have little other life than that of holding 
firmly to certain facts of experience which serve 
for support and protection to those who live more 
active lives. They serve to preserve the propor- 
tions and relations of the parts of the man — not 



222 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



exerting any force themselves except that of stolid 
resistance when their facts are in question. 

"The societies of spirits to which the carti- 
lages and bones correspond are very many; but 
they are such as have very little spiritual life in 
them, as there is very little life in the bones rela- 
tively to the soft parts which they enclose ; as, for 
example, there is in the skull and the bones of the 
head compared with either brain and the medulla 
oblongata, and the sensitive substances there ; and 
also as there is in the vertebrae and ribs in compar- 
ison with the heart and lungs ; and so on. It was 
shown how little spiritual life they have who have 
relation to the bones ; other spirits speak by them, 
and they themselves know little of what they say ; 
but still they speak, having delight in this alone. 
Into such a state are they reduced who have led 
an evil life, and still had some remains of good ; 
these remains make that little spiritual life, after 
the vastations of many ages. . . . They who come 
out of vastations, and serve the uses of bones, have 
not any determinate thought, but general, almost 
indeterminate ; they are like those who are called 
distraught, as if not in the body ; they are slow, 
heavy, stupid, sluggish about everything. Yet 
sometimes they are not untranquil, because cares 



BONES. 



223 



do not penetrate, but are dissipated in their gen- 
eral obscurity." (n. 5560-5562.) 

He explains that the lack of spiritual life is 
lack of spiritual intelligence and charity, not nec- 
essarily lack of natural intelligence. Therefore, 
in the " Diary," he says, — 

" They correspond to bones, in the other life, who 
have studied various sciences and have made no 
use of them, as they who have studied mathematics 
only to find the rules, and have not regarded any 
use ; or physics and chemistry only for the sake of 
experiment, and for no other use ; also philosophy 
to find its rules and terms, only for the sake of the 
terms and for no other use ; and likewise other 
things. They who become bones also, when they 
reason, hardly discuss anything else than whether 
it is or is not. Hence it is evident that the greatest 
part of the learned within the church become bones. 
They are those who are finally sensual ; the church 
also is in this state to-day ; hence is its end." 
(S. D. 5 141.) 



CARTILAGES. 



/^"^ARTILAGES are really the receptacles of 
. the earthy materials of which bones are made. 
All bones begin as cartilages, and gradually be- 
come hardened by receiving earthy deposits. Their 
use, therefore, would be performed in the heavens 
by spirits who are more simple and pliable in 
their stupidity than those who represent the 
bones — by those who know a few general truths, 
while the bones are those who hold their own 
particular experiences. Such would much more 
readily enter into easy relations w T ith others than 
those who must intrude their small experiences. 
Hence the bones are capped with cartilage at the 
joints. 

The breast-bone also terminates in a cartilage, 
for the sake of greater flexibility in accommoda- 
tion to the motions of the chest. The angels 
who belong to this province in the Greatest Man, 



224 



CARTILAGES. 



225 



Swedenborg says, are from our moon ; and he 
describes their dwarfish appearance, but says noth- 
ing about their character. (E. U. III.) 

In speaking of the various qualities in the 
Greatest Man, he says, — 

" It has been provided by the Lord that those 
whom the Gospel has not been able to reach, but a 
religion only, should also be able to have a place 
in that Divine Man, that is, in heaven, by consti- 
tuting the parts that are called skins, membranes, 
cartilages, and bones ; and that they like others 
should be in heavenly joy; for it is not a matter 
of concern whether they are in such joy as the 
angels of the highest heaven have, or in such as 
the angels of the lowest heaven have ; for every 
one who comes into heaven, comes into the highest 
joy of his heart ; he does not bear a higher joy, for 
he would be suffocated in it." (D. P. 254.) 



THE SKIN, 



~\~\ 7E are in the habit of thinking of the skin 
as a covering for the body of a sort of 
delicate untanned leather, with no great vitality 
of its own, but serving to protect the more sensi- 
tive and important organs within. There is some 
truth in this, — the skin does protect much nobler 
organs than itself ; and the outer skin is not 
sensitive ; yet no other part of the body is more 
sensitive than the inner skin ; which possesses 
also a delicacy and complexity of structure which 
will excite our admiration. There exist in nature 
multitudes of little animals too minute for the 
unaided eye to perceive, endowed each with organs 
of sense, of digestion, of circulation, and of action, 
all contained within a compass too small for us 
to notice. From Swedenborg's marvellous de- 
scription it would appear that there is not a 
point in the inner skin less exquisitely organized 
than these. 226 



THE SKIX. 



227 



The outer layer of the skin, which is the part 
with which we are best acquainted^ is composed of 
little horny scales laid one upon another like armor 
of mail to a greater or less thickness according to 
the exposure. This is perforated by the hairs and 
by innumerable little pores, which we shall consider 
hereafter. This outer skin is detached by blisters 
and chafings, and then we discover a most tender, 
sensitive surface under it, which we are glad to 
protect by a plaster till its proper coat of scales 
is repaired. Yet even these scales do not rest 
immediately upon the sensitive skin, though they 
arc thrown into little ridges and spirals in accom- 
modation to its papillae. They rest upon a soft, 
jelly-like vascular membrane [rete mucosum) which 
encases the papillae of the inner skin, protecting 
them and combining their sensations. 

The surface of the inner skin, thus protected 
and encased by two outer layers, is composed of 
little papillae, finer than needle points, each of 
which under a powerful glass is seen to be a 
bundle of still more minute papillary fibres. In 



228 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

these papillae are seen looped nervous fibres, and 
also what are called " tactile corpuscles," both of 
which serve as organs of touch, and many more 
nerve fibres are seen splitting into almost invisi- 
ble filaments. Besides these exquisitely sensitive 
papillae in which the touch resides, the skin con- 
tains the roots of the hairs, with their anointing 
glands, innumerable sweat glands, each one look- 
ing like a little convoluted intestine — which un- 
ravelled, it is estimated, would amount to two and 
a half miles in length in a single person — also 
arteries, which in states of inflammation are seen 
in a net-work over the papillary surface, and 
veins and lymphatics without number. 

So much is commonly known of the skin, and 
not much more. Microscopic investigation shows 
some of the nerve fibres ending in the papillae 
in loops or " tactile corpuscles" but many more 
divide into little brushes ; and what they do there, 
or what becomes of them, modern science does 
not know. And here Swedenborg's more than 
microscopic insight takes up the subject. " Not 



THE SKIN. 



229 



know," he would say, a what the fibres do in those 
most delicate of fleshy forms, when you know 
that the vessels are woven from the fibres, and 
that the intermediates are formed by the ex- 
tremes ! The nervous fibres are weaving there 
the beginnings of the blood-vessels, or the fleshy 
fibres. They coil themselves into minute invisi- 
ble tubes, called corporeal fibres, and these again 
into larger tubes which are the finest fleshy fibres 
of the papillae, and are the last subdivisions of 
the arteries, too fine in their ordinary state to 
carry red blood, and these combining extend their 
delicately woven walls to the lining of the arteries ; 
and thus through the arteries, the heart, and again 
the carotid arteries, the nervous fibres return to 
the brain." 

The idea that the beginning of the arterial sys- 
tem is in the skin, not the heart, at first may 
seem surprising ; but it is illustrated by the sim- 
ilar and well-known fact that the beginnings of 
the woody fibres of trees are in the leaves, not 
in the stem or the roots. Through the pith and 



2 3 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



the delicate fibres of the bark, nourishment as- 
cends to expand the first tender leaves, and from 
these descend the first woody fibres between the 
bark and the pith, as well as new fibres of bark, 
and extend themselves to the extremities of the 
roots. Through these woody and cortical fibres 
sap afterwards ascends to the leaves, and by their 
means new buds and leaves are formed, which in 
turn send down other fibres, and thus the trunk 
of the tree grows in concentric layers of wood, 
every fibre of which has descended from the 
leaves. 

In Swedenborg's view a similar process goes on 
from the membranes which are the ultimates of 
the body, and especially from the skin. Before 
the heart exists in the embryo, ramifications of 
blood-vessels are seen, which indeed soon unite 
in the heart and afterwards act from it ; and 
these undoubtedly assist in the formation of 
other vessels and tissues, which are, however, 
everywhere woven from the nervous fibres, the 
blood-vessels cooperating and afterwards sustain- 
ing them. 



THE SKIN. 



231 



It is a familiar fact that through the skin there 
are continual exhalation and absorption. There 
is exhalation of watery vapor, of fatty vapor — as 
we see by touching the fingers for a moment to 
clean gla^s — of more subtile effluvia which affect 
the sense of smell, sometimes pleasantly as from 
an infant's skin, and of most delicate, perhaps 
magnetic influence to which some persons are 
very sensitive, and which is often used in reliev- 
ing nervous pains ; these exhalations are all of 
materials no longer needed in the body, but par- 
taking of the life of the body, and capable of 
doing more or less use in the extremes or beyond 
the surface of the body. 

There are also inhalations correlative to these 
exhalations. It is said that the thirst of exhausted 
men may be satisfied by immersion in the sea or 
by wetting their clothes. Nutritious vapors and 
steam are also absorbed, no doubt in quantities 
which go far to satisfy hunger. 

The volatile oils of poisonous ivy and of dog- 
wood, inappreciable by any conscious sense, are 



232 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



absorbed by the skin to its great discomfort. And 
more subtile still, the "animal magnetism," as it 
is called, the most active but delicate of the ex- 
halations of a living body, is absorbed by the 
minutest pores of another body, and is a power- 
ful agent in restoring disordered or tired nerves. 
These are things of common experience which 
show that the skin is a most active agent both 
in absorbing and in exhaling materials related to 
animal life of many kinds. Thus the skin has 
already, upon the surface of the body, some of the 
properties which are further developed in its con- 
tinuations which line the stomach and the lungs. 

Throughout the viscera, as well as upon the 
surface of the body, the mouths of the little pores 
are in the extremities of the little papillae of 
touch, which by their exquisite sense perceive the 
quality of the materials offered for their accept- 
ance or rejection, and rule over the action of the 
ducts according to their perception and to the 
wants of the body. The knowledge they acquire 
they report in part to the cerebrum, in which 



THE SKIN. 233 



dwells the conscious, thinking mind, but in greater 
part, especially from the viscera, to those nerve- 
centres which preside over the vital functions of 
the body without reference to our perverted sense 
or ignorant reason. 

The sense of touch gives substance and reality 
to all our sensations. Sight and hearing and 
smell, without touch, would be almost like affec- 
tions of the imagination ; their objects would 
seem forever unreal, unsubstantial, unless they 
could be touched. By touch they are brought 
into substantial, satisfactory relations to us ; by it 
we perceive their substance, their texture, their 
size, and hardness or softness, their general 
relation to ourselves. To the sense of touch 
we apply the term " feeling," which is also the 
name of the inner sensation produced in our 
mental organs by contact with thought and af- 
fection. 

Sight is necessary to correct the very limited 
impressions of touch, and the inner feelings are 
modified by the understanding ; but in both cases 



234 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



the sense of relation to us comes through the 
touch. Therefore it is that touch signifies in 
" spiritual language communication of affection ; for 
by touch the sensitive papillae are modified in 
form to agree with the object of contact, and they 
either extend themselves with pleasure and open 
their little pores to receive the influence presented 
to them, or they shrink with aversion and close 
their doors. Spheres of life, and. of effluvia par- 
taking of the quality and activity of the life, are 
both communicated and received through the skin ; 
and the touch, including the delicate sense of the 
quality of spheres, guards all the doors. 

At the approach of danger, real or imaginary, 
it orders the doors to be shut, the armor of the 
skin to be more firmly held, and even the little 
hairs to be erected and put forth as feelers. But 
when agreeable influences are felt, the armor is 
loosened, the advanced capillary guards withdrawn 
and laid down, and the doors thrown open wide 
for sweet interchange of congenial life. Hence 
the highest use of this sense is with two whose 



THE SKIN. 235 



lives are one, and Swedenborg says that it is dedi- 
cated to marriage. 

Swedenborg says that the coverings of the tab- 
ernacle of the Israelites, composed successively of 
fine linen, of goats' hair, of rams' skins, and of a 
coarser skin outside, represent the four layers of 
skin which cover the body. (A. C. 9632.) Here 
he treats as two the papillary layer of the corium, 
and the fibrous layer beneath. Upon the inner 
curtains of fine linen were embroidered cherubs, 
which Swedenborg says represented the guard of 
the Lord lest the Holy Divine should be ap- 
proached except by the good of love. (A. C. 9509.) 
Applied to the heavens this would mean the sensi- 
tiveness of the heavens from the Lord lest they 
should be approached or entered except by those 
who are in love to the Lord and the neighbor. 
And this sensitiveness resides with those who 
constitute the inner skin. 

I have been speaking of the spheres of the 
body and of the mind as if they always acted 
together as one and were received as one. This 



236 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



may be so and may not. In any case the sense 
of touch properly has to do only with the body 
and the spheres of the body ; and spiritual sub- 
stances and influences are perceived by the corre- 
sponding sense of the mind, which, indeed, is 
commonly called, in its nice discriminations of 
mutual relation, " tact " or touch. In the spiritual 
world, mind and body are in agreement ; and 
those who have delicate tact, or perception of 
spiritual relations, have also delicate skins. Swe- 
denborg says, — 

"The conformation of the interweavings of the 
skin has been shown me representatively. The 
formation with those in whom those most external 
things correspond to the interiors, or the material 
things there are obedient to spiritual, was a beauti- 
ful weaving of spirals wonderfully intertwined in a 
kind of lace-work which cannot at all be described. 
They were of blue color. Afterwards were repre- 
sented forms still more elaborate, more delicate, 
and more beautifully connected. Of such a struc- 
ture appear the cuticles of a regenerate man. But 
with those who have been deceitful, these extremes 
appear conglutinations of mere serpents ; and with 



THE SKIN. 



2 37 



those who have used magical arts, like filthy intes- 
tines." (n. 5559.) 

Of the scarf-skin of the body, he says, — 

"That skin is less sensitive than any other of 
the coverings, for it is covered over with scales 
which are almost like delicate cartilage. The soci- 
eties which constitute it are they who reason con- 
cerning all things whether it be so or not so, nor 
do they go any further. [This is like the obtuse- 
ness of the cuticle which has no life or perception 
of its own, but merely collects impressions of all 
sorts, not discriminating among them itself.] When 
I talked with them, it was given to perceive that 
they did not at all apprehend what is true or not 
true, and they who have reasoned most apprehend 
the least. Still, they seem to themselves wiser 
than others, for they place wisdom in the faculty 
of arguing. They are utterly ignorant that the 
essential thing in wisdom is to perceive without 
arguing, that it is so or is not so. Many such are 
from those who in the world were made so by a 
confusion of good and truth through philosoph- 
icals ; who have hence the less common sense." 
(n. 5556.) 

This appears to be said of the horny scarf-skin 



2 3 8 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



proper. But in A. C. 5553, it is said that "the 
societies to whom the cuticles correspond are in 
the entrance to heaven, and there is given to them 
perception of the quality of the spirits who ap- 
proach the first threshold, whom they either reject 
or admit ; so that they may be called entrances 
or doorways to heaven." Apparently in "the cuti- 
cles " he here includes the whole skin in general, 
and also the linings of the stomach and intestines, 
and what is said may, in part, refer to these last. 
(Compare n. 8980.) But it is also true that the 
orifices of the minute ducts, as to their function 
of absorbing ethereal aliment for the body, are 
like portals to heaven, through which they who die 
in earliest infancy and before the embryonic state 
is completed, are caught up by the quickest and 
shortest ways into their appropriate province in 
heaven.* 

" There are very many societies who constitute 
the external integuments of the body, with differ- 

* S. D. 1022, 1035, and Index, under " Infans." 



THE SKIN. 239 



ences from the face to the soles of feet ; for there 
are differences everywhere. I have talked much 
with them. As regards spiritual life they are such 
that they allow themselves to be persuaded by 
others that a thing is so ; and when they heard it 
confirmed from the literal sense of the Word, they 
altogether believed it, and remained in the opinion, 
and resolved upon a life, not bad, according to it. 
Intercourse with them cannot easily be had by 
others who are not of a similar disposition, for they 
adhere tenaciously to the opinions they have formed, 
nor do they suffer themselves to be led away by 
reaspns. There are a great many such from this 
earth, because our planet is in externals, and also 
reacts against internals, like the skin.'' (n. 5554.) 

The people of our earth are like the skin in 
this, that their whole natures are turned outwards 
to receive impressions from the world. Therefore 
the impressions of sense are here organized into 
sciences which do not exist upon any other earth. 
Therefore also the Word, by which the whole 
heaven is made, received its literal sense upon 
this earth ; and this literal sense can be turned 
hither and thither, and is composed of facts of 



240 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



little or no spiritual life, which understood literally 
by us convey impressions of far different char- 
acter to the angels, and serve to ultimate, gener- 
alize, contain, and suggest the wisdom and spiritual 
life of the heavens. 

The order of development of the body, from 
the purest fibres by means of the extremities of 
the vessels in the skin, and then the interiors, 
must also be the order of development of the 
Greatest Man, consisting of the heavens and the 
church, and also of the Word itself. Swedenborg 
says, — 

" The Lord flows in from firsts through lasts, 
thus from Himself into the natural sense of the 
Word, and calls out or evolves thence its spiritual 
and celestial senses, and thus illustrating, teaches 
and leads the angels." (S. S. Post. 18.) 

"The Word in ultimates is the sense of the 
letter ; the Word in firsts is the Lord, and the 
Word in interiors is its internal sense which is per- 
ceived in the heavens. . . . Man in ultimates is 
the church on the earths, man in firsts is the Lord, 
man in interiors is heaven, for the church and heaven 
before the Lord are as one man." (A. C. 10,044.) 



THE SKIN. 



241 



Before there were angels, men were created 
upon the earths by the Lord, and by their interior 
development the heavens were filled with angels. 
And before the Divine truth could be taught to 
the heavens, it must have been taught in a very 
pure, simple, literal sense of the Word, given im- 
mediately from God to men. From this literal 
sense were evolved the spiritual truths which 
make the heavens ; and these were received in 
the minds of men who became angels ; and these 
angels were the mediums of making still further 
revelations of the Lord to men, which again were 
the beginnings of new heavenly forms ; and thus 
the man grew, every new growth springing from 
life from God through the internal, first received, 
lived, and fixed in the external. 

It is a knowledge of the mere letter of the 
Word which is like the insensible cuticle ; a per- 
ception of the natural goodness of God in dealing 
with men, of His providence, and of His wisdom, 
belongs to the sensitive papillae beneath the cuti- 
cle. Of the varieties of these Swedenborg says 



242 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



nothing, and very little of their uses of absorp- 
tion and perspiration ; but I cannot doubt that 
they have relation to the loves of receiving the 
spirit which breathes through the letter of the 
Word, and which is genuine truth for the deepest 
thought ; and of separating from the thought that 
which has done its use, and should no longer 
circulate in the thought. 

Of the mode of action of those in the Greatest 
Man whose duty it is to accept the true and to 
separate the useless thought, Swedenborg says, — 

" There are spirits who when they wish to know 
anything say that it is so, thus one after another 
in society ; and thus, when they say it, they ob- 
serve whether it flows freely, without any spiritual 
resistance ; for when it is not so, they generally 
perceive a resistance from within ; if they do not 
perceive resistance, they think that it is so, and do 
not know it in any other way. Such are they who 
constitute the glands of the skin." (n. 5558.) 

Swedenborg often speaks of the skin as corre- 
sponding to those who are in truths of faith only, 
and not in goods of charity, and who act there- 



THE SKIN. 243 



fore not from a love of good in themselves but by 
direction from without : " they who are such even 
to the end of life, after death remain in that 
state, nor can they be led out to a state in which 
they will act from affection of charity, thus from 
good, but from obedience. These in the Greatest 
Man, which is heaven, constitute the things which 
serve the interiors, like the membranes and skins." 
(n. 8990.)* For, after all, the skin is a passive 
sort of agent, which loves to absorb, to test, and 
to excrete, but not to do or to produce ; and it 
must correspond to those who are of like charac- 
ter. As a covering, also, it goes where it is car- 
ried, touches what it is made to touch, and has 
no power of seeking or shunning, but merely of 
warning others. 

Life is covered with forms and usages which 
are neither good nor bad in themselves. To do 
away with these neutral things, and make every 
thing a matter of conscience, is like removing the 

* See also n. 8588, 8870, 8980, 9959. 



244 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



cuticle and exposing the cutis to pain from every 
touch. 

If we are very sensitive about things which 
are of little importance in themselves, we are 
what is called thin-skinned, and in associating with 
others we are continually getting hurt. It is the 
wise way in such cases to withdraw our life from 
such really unimportant things, let them become 
dead and like callosities, which can bear friction 
without pain. But to become indifferent and cal- 
lous about things of real importance to spiritual 
life is to become stupid. 



THE HAIR 



T "FAIRS grow from the skin, and in a sense 
constitute a part of the skin. In themselves 
they have very little life or sensitiveness, though 
they may be strongly and sensitively held by the 
skin. They play a great part in the adornment 
of the person, and they have an important use 
in the protection of the more living surfaces, 
especially of the head, beneath them. 

They correspond to the formalities and courte- 
sies of thought and of life, which are of small 
account in themselves, and yet add greatly to the 
beauty of life, and certainly present a most useful 
shield to the more sensitive feelings beneath. 
They may indeed be presented with perfect sin- 
cerity, and may rightly interpret the feelings ; but 
it is easier to meet in pleasant formalities about 
which we are not very sensitive, than to be 
always exposing our feelings, and receiving per- 
sonal affronts and injuries. 245 



246 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

"As is the correspondence of the bones and 
cuticles, so is that of the hairs, for these put forth 
from roots in the cuticles. Whatever has corre- 
spondence with the Greatest Man, this the spirits 
and angels have ; for each one represents as an 
image the Greatest Man ; therefore the angels 
have hair, arranged becomingly and in order. Their 
hair represents their natural life and its corre- 
spondence with their spiritual life. . . . There are 
many, especially women, who have placed every- 
thing in elegancies, nor have they thought higher, 
and scarcely anything concerning eternal life. This 
is pardoned to women until the age of womanhood, 
when the ardor which is wont to precede marriage 
ceases ; but if they persist in such things in adult 
age, when they can know better, then they con- 
tract a nature which remains after death. Such 
appear in the other life with long hair spread 
over their face, which also they comb, placing ele- 
gance in it ; for to comb the hair signifies to ac- 
commodate natural things so that they appear 
becoming. From this they are known by others ; 
for spirits can tell from the color, length, and 
arrangement of the hair, what the persons were 
as to natural life in the world. 

"They who have believed nature to be everything, 
and have confirmed themselves in this, and there- 



THE HAIR. 247 



fore have lived a careless life, not acknowledging 
any life after death, nor any hell or heaven ; such, 
because they are merely natural, when they appear 
in the light of heaven, do not seem to have any face, 
but instead something bearded, hairy, unshorn ; 
for, as was said above, the face represents the 
spiritual and celestial things interiorly in man, but 
hairiness the natural things." (A. C. 5569-5571.) 
" That the hairs of the head and of the beard 
correspond to the Word in its ultimates, may seem 
wonderful, when it is first seen and heard ; but that 
correspondence derives its cause from this, that all 
things of the Word correspond with all things of 
heaven, and heaven with all things of man ; for 
heaven in its complex is before the Lord as one 
man. . . . That all things of the Word correspond 
to all things of heaven, has been given me to per- 
ceive from this, that the chapters of the Word cor- 
respond respectively to the societies of heaven ; for 
when I ran through the propheticals of the Word, 
from Isaiah to Malachi, it was given me to see that 
the societies of heaven were aroused in their order 
and perceived the spiritual sense corresponding to 
themselves. From these and from other proofs it 
was evident to me that there is a correspondence 
of the whole heaven with the Word in a series. 
Now, because there is such a correspondence of 



248 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

the Word with heaven, and heaven as a whole and 
in detail corresponds to man, therefore the ultimate 
of the Word corresponds to the ultimate of man ; 
the ultimate of the Word is the sense of the letter, 
and the ultimates of man are the hairs of the head 
and of the beard. Hence it is that men who have 
loved the Word even in its ultimates, after death, 
when they become spirits, appear in becoming hair 
as the angels do; the same also, when they become 
angels, let their beards grow. But, on the other 
hand, they who have despised the sense of the let- 
ter of the Word, after death, when they become 
spirits, appear bald, which also is a sign that they 
are without truths ; wherefore also lest it should 
seem to others disgraceful, they cover their heads 
with turbans." (De Verbo, 10.) 

Swedenborg describes a certain council called 
in the world of spirits, in which "on the right 
stood those who in the world were called Apostolic 
Fathers, and who lived in the ages preceding the 
Nicene Council ; and on the left stood men re- 
nowned in succeeding ages for their books, printed 
or written out by scholars. Many of the latter 
had their faces shaved, and their heads covered 
with curled wigs made of women's hair, . . . but 



THE HAIR. 



249 



the former had long beards, and wore their natural 
hair" (T. C. R. 137). And it appeared that the 
shaven men had no regard for truth ; but the 
bearded men were angels from heaven. 

The beard seems to represent the clothing in 
which one expresses his rational thought — the 
generalities which one advances as it were tenta- 
tively, indicating his thought but not making it a 
matter of personal feeling. 

Women have no beards, for when they speak 
they usually express their feelings ; but they have 
beautiful hair, for they love to make this expres- 
sion decorous and agreeable. 

Such uses as these are evidently performed for 
the Word by its literal sense. Expressions of 
affection are there, in graceful, poetic language, 
which both adorns and protects them ; and the 
wisdom by which the heavens were made, and are 
daily led in goodness, is there also ; but it is 
clothed in neutral expressions which may be re- 
jected without much harm, but which if understood 
rightly, reveal the Divine thought of the Lord. 



THE HANDS. 



HHHROUGH the hands is expressed the love 
of doing, of forming for use, and of com- 
municating. The working strength of the body 
is exerted by them ; also its skill or wisdom of 
work. 

"To speak well," Shakspeare says, " is a kind 
of good deed " ; and it is a kind that is per- 
formed by the tongue. But the words of the 
tongue have for their purpose to affect the works 
of others' hands, by filling them with wiser thought 
and better feeling, if not by changing their form 
or direction ; and even words are expressed more 
perfectly and permanently by the hand, in writing, 
than by the tongue ; and, moreover, they who 
speak express their personal life and love more 
fully by what they do with their hands than by 
their words.* 



*See D. L. W. 361. 

250 



THE HANDS. 



2 5 J 



The use of the arms is almost exclusively to 
make the hands effective. The upper arm, to 
the elbow, including the muscles of the shoulder, 
raises, extends, and gives broad, sweeping motions 
to the lower arm and hand. The lower arm adds 
to the variety of motions of the hand that of rota- 
tion, and also contains in itself the strong muscles 
which extend and those which contract the fingers. 
The compact upper part of the hand, with its bones 
strongly and almost immovably bound together, 
gives firmness and solidity to all the deeds which 
require the action of the whole hand. The skin 
of it, especially upon the palm, though firm and 
thick, is exquisitely sensitive and very porous, and 
thus is peculiarly fitted as an instrument to re- 
ceive and to communicate such influences as can 
be communicated through the skin. Here, also, 
snugly packed between the bones, lie the little 
muscles which give quick, light motions to the 
fingers ; and, of course, through this part of the 
hand pass the tendons which convey the power of 
the fore-arm to the fingers ; and all are bound 



252 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



down and protected by smooth, strong, sinewy 
sheaths, which no one can see without admiration. 
Each hand terminates in four fingers and a 
thumb. The fingers, from their flexibility and 
quickness, perform most of the light, skilful mo- 
tions of the hand, guiding its smaller tools, or 
striking the keys of its instruments by their sepa- 
rate motions, or combining to grasp the imple- 
ments which require their united strength ; and 
the thumb takes upon itself the task of holding 
within the grasp of the fingers and subject to 
their operations the objects upon which, or the 
instruments by which, they are to do their work. 
For this purpose the thumb has the power of op- 
posing itself to each finger separately, and pressing 
a small object, as a pencil, a needle, a bit of paper 
or cloth, upon its point ; and also of opposing 
them all, and retaining a larger object, as a cane 
or an- axe or the hand of a friend, within their 
grasp. And both fingers and thumbs share, per- 
haps in even larger measure, the sensitive open- 
ness of skin of the palm. The papillae arrange 



THE HANDS. 253 



themselves at the tips in beautiful spiral sweeps, 
which were Swedenborg's delight, expressing to 
him the perfection of their structure, and the 
infinite variety of their possible adaptations. 

This beautiful apparatus for expressing the love 
of doing and communicating is itself very much 
modified by its work. By some kinds of w T ork in 
which great strength is exerted, the cuticle is 
thickened and made hard and firm to protect the 
tender parts ; at the same time, the muscles and 
even the bones are enlarged, and the shape of 
the hand is broadened and thickened. By other 
kinds of work the cuticle is made thin and flexible, 
and the hands themselves slight and delicate. By 
long continued exercise of the fingers in sepa- 
rate motions, as in playing upon an instrument, 
the little muscles of the fingers are separated 
from one another, and acquire great freedom of 
motion ; and even, in some cases, new little acces- 
sory muscles may be formed ; while in work which 
exercises all the fingers jointly, there is a tendency 
to combine the muscles for mutual support ; at 



*54 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



least, they often do grow together to such a de- 
gree that the power of separate motion is very 
much diminished. 

Every employment has its own peculiar motions 
to which the hands and fingers must be trained ; 
and by training they acquire skill and deftness. 
No doubt it is true, also, that the kind of love 
which is put into the work, whether gentle and 
considerate or selfish, affects the motions and even 
the organic forms of the hands. We are not 
skilled to judge of interior things from the hands ; 
but Swedenborg says, that an angel can read from 
the hand the whole of a man's life, what it has 
been exteriorly and interiorly ; which means that 
all the affection and thought from which a man 
has lived are actually worked into the forms of his 
hands. 

Possibly it is true, also, that the delicate forms 
of the fibres and papillae of the hands are affected 
by the outflow and the reception of the effluvia 
which constitute the spheres of human lives. Cer- 
tain it is that the love of doing throws all its 



THE HANDS. 



255 



power into the hands, and expresses itself there 
not only in works, but by a helpful and strength- 
ening communication of itself, and thus of the 
life of the man. 

We read that when John in the vision saw the 
Lord in the midst of the seven golden candle- 
sticks, he fell at His feet as dead ; by which is 
signified a sense of his own lifelessness in the 
presence of the Lord ; and then the Lord laid 
His right hand upon him, and communicated His 
life to him. Of this, Swedenborg says, — 

"That the Lord laid His right hand upon him 
is because communication is effected by the touch 
of the hands ; the reason is that the life of the 
mind and thence of the body puts itself forth into 
the arms and through them into the hands ; there- 
fore it is that the Lord touched with His hand 
those whom He raised from the dead and those 
whom He healed ; and that He also touched His 
disciples when they saw Him transfigured, and fell 
upon their faces." (A. R. 55.) 

In all these cases, the Lord's Divine love of 
doing good and giving life was actually put forth 



256 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



through His hand, and was received according 
to the state of the recipient. For a like reason, 
when we desire to express sympathy, and to help 
one who needs it, we naturally stretch out our 
hand. 

On this subject, Swedenborg further writes, — 

"That to touch is communication, translation, 
and reception, is because the interiors of man put 
themselves forth through the exteriors, especially 
through the touch, and thus communicate them- 
selves to another, and transfer themselves into 
another, and as far as the will of the other agrees 
and makes one, so far they are received. This is 
especially manifest in the other life ; for there all 
act from the heart, that is, from the will or love, 
and it is not allowed to express by actions separate 
from these, nor to speak with simulating lips, that 
is, separately from the thought of the heart. It 
is manifest there how the interiors communicate 
themselves to another, and transfer themselves into 
another by the touch ; and how the other receives 
them according to his love. The will or the love 
of every one constitutes the whole man there, and 
the sphere of his life flows thence from him like a 
breathing or vapor, and surrounds him, and makes 



THE HANDS. 



257 



as it were himself around him, hardly otherwise than 
like the exhalation about plants in the world, which 
also is perceived at a distance by odors ; also about 
beasts, which is exquisitely perceived by a saga- 
cious dog. Such exhalation also pours out from 
every person, as also is known by much experience. 
But when man lays aside his body, and becomes a 
spirit or angel, then that effluvium or exhalation is 
not material as in the world, but it is the spiritual 
flowing from his love ; this then forms a sphere 
about him, which causes his quality to be perceived 
at a distance by others. . . . This sphere is com- 
municated to another, and transferred into him, and 
is received by the other according to his love." 
(A. C. 10,130.) 

This sphere of life comes forth with special 
strength from the hands, because it comes from 
the love which is the life, and which concentrates 
its active power in them. Upon this is founded 
our custom of shaking or pressing hands when we 
meet as friends, by which a mutual interchange of 
spheres of life is not only represented but effected. 
Sensitive persons perceive in the touch of the 
hands a sense of pleasure when the states of life 



258 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES, 

are in harmony, and a peculiar feeling of contrac- 
tion of the fibres and closing of the pores, when 
they disagree, even though they do not know the 
state of the person they meet, nor the cause of 
their feeling. 

As all the power of one's life throws itself into 
the hands and expresses itself through them, so 
the life of the heavens and their power to do 
good operates through the angels who are in the 
province of the hands. 

"In the Greatest Man," Swedenborg says, "they 
who correspond to the hands and arms, and also to 
the shoulders, are they who are in power by the 
truth of faith from good [which is the same as 
saying that they are in the Lord's wisdom of life 
from good love] ; for they who are in the truth of 
faith from good, are in the Lord's power ; for they 
attribute all power to Him, and none to themselves, 
and the more they attribute all power to Him and 
none to themselves, the greater power they are in ; 
hence the angels are called Powers and Abilities. 
That the hands, arms, and shoulders in the Greatest 
Man correspond to power is because the forces and 
powers of the whole body and of all its viscera con- 



THE HANDS. 



2 59 



centrate themselves there ; for the body exerts its 
forces and powers by the arms and the hands." 

" A naked arm bent forward, has been seen by 
me, which had in it so great force and at the same 
time such terror that not only was I terrified, but 
it seemed as if I might be crushed to atoms, and 
even as to inmosts ; it was irresistible. Twice this 
arm has appeared to me ; and hence it has been 
given me to know that arms signify strength, and 
hands power. There was also felt a warmth ex- 
haling from that arm. That naked arm is presented 
to view in various positions, and according to them 
strikes terror; and in the position just mentioned 
incredible terror ; for it appears able to break to 
pieces in an instant the bones and the marrows. 
They who have not been timid in the life of the 
body, are nevertheless in the other life driven into 
the greatest terror by that arm." (A. C. 4932-4935.) 

This arm, we are told, in H. H. 231, is presented 
from those who are in the province of the arm, 
and is an embodiment of their power ; but their 
power is not theirs separate from the rest of the 
heavens ; they are in the practical truths of the 
uses of the heavens, and "into their truths good 
flows in from the whole heaven," and hence is 



2 6o PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

their power. They exert their power in doing the 
work of the heavens, especially for those who are 
out of the heavens. " In general," Swedenborg 
says, " angels of every society are sent to men, 
to keep them, to withdraw them from evil affec- 
tions and thoughts, and to inspire good affections 
as far as they receive them freely, by which also 
they rule the deeds or works of men, removing 
as far as possible evil intentions." (H. H. 391.) 
Again he says, — 

" The will and understanding of man are ruled 
by the Lord, by angels, and spirits ; and because 
the will and understanding, also all things of the 
body are so ruled, since these are thence. And if 
you will believe it, man cannot even move a step 
without the influx of heaven. That it is so has 
been shown me by much experience ; it has been 
given to angels to move my steps, my actions, my 
tongue and speech as they would, and this by in- 
flux into my will and thought ; and I found that I 
could do nothing of myself. They said afterwards 
that every man is so ruled, and that he might know 
this from the doctrine of the Church and from 
the Word, for he prays that God will send His 



THE HANDS. 261 



angels who may lead him, guide his steps, teach 
him, and inspire what he should think and what 
he should speak, and other such things ; although 
when he thinks in himself apart from doctrine, he 
says and believes otherwise. These things are re- 
lated that it may be known how great power angels 
have with man. 

" But the power of angels in the spiritual world 
is so great, that if I were to publish all that I have 
seen about it, it would exceed belief. If anything 
there resists, which must be removed because it is 
contrary to Divine order, they throw it down and 
overturn it merely by an effort of the will and a 
look. I have seen mountains which were occupied 
by the evil, thus cast down, and overthrown, some- 
times shaken to pieces from one end to the other, 
as is the case in earthquakes, rocks also rent in the 
middle even to the deep, and the evil who were 
upon them swallowed up. I have also seen some 
hundreds of thousands of evil spirits scattered and 
cast into hell. Multitude avails nothing against 
them, neither arts nor cunning nor combinations ; 
they see all and in a moment dispel it. . . . Such 
power they have in the spiritual world. That angels 
have similar power in the natural world also, when 
it is granted, is manifest from the Word ; as that 
they gave whole armies to slaughter, that they 



262 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

caused a pestilence of which seventy thousand men 
died ; of which angel it is thus written, f The angel 
stretched out his hand against Jerusalem to destroy 
it, but Jehovah repented Him of the evil, and said 
to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough ; 
stay now thy hand. And David saw the angel who 
smote the people.' . . . Because the angels have 
such power, they are called Powers ; and it is said 
in David, ' Bless Jehovah ye His angels, most pow- 
erful in strength.'" (H. H. 228, 229.) 

We could hardly ask for a plainer account of 
the work of the hands of the heavens. They 
bring forth, and are the instruments of the 
angelic love of doing good to men. They rule 
the spirits that are with men, removing the evil 
and strengthening the good. They are about us 
as the organs of the Lord's Providence to protect, 
guide, and care for us ; and through them the 
whole heavens reach forth to share with men 
their love and power to do good. We see their 
work in the protection from danger which we ex- 
perience daily and hourly ; in the leadings which 
we so often follow away from unseen danger, or 



THE HANDS. 263 



to unknown good ; in the sense of strong support 
which comes in trouble ; and especially in the lift- 
ing of the mind above the pains of the body and 
the cares of the world even to the gates of heaven, 
as the time of death gradually approaches. 

They inspire the strength of a just cause, giv- 
ing both protection and power to individuals and 
to armies. They are an irresistible power present 
with us, which can do anything that it is wise to 
do for the benefit of mankind. 

" All the powers of the life of the Greatest Man, 
or heaven, terminate in the two hands and two feet ; 
and the hands, as also the feet, terminate in ten 
fingers or toes." (A. E. 675 end.) 

The power of the Lord through heaven is ex- 
erted through the angels of these provinces ; and 
it is of them in a special sense, as the means of 
the Lord's protection and providence about men, 
that the Scriptures say, " The eternal God is thy 
dwelling-place, and underneath are the everlasting 
arms." (Deut. xxxiii. 27.) 

The general functions of this kind are exercised 



264 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

by the hands as a whole ; particulars of the func- 
tion are performed by individual fingers. The 
angels of the thumb, like the thumb itself, can 
have no leading part, but are effective in cooper- 
ating with all those in the fingers. 

The nails are of hair-like structure, protecting 
and stiffening the ends of the fingers. They have 
a correspondence with literal truths or precepts 
concerning the uses to be done, held not intelli- 
gently, but resolutely and inflexibly — thus for the 
support of those who are sensitive and yielding. 



THE FEET 



HTHE feet have many points of resemblance to 
the hands ; their general structure is similar, 
with some modifications, so that in cases of neces- 
sity they are taught to do in some degree the 
work of hands, and the hands are degraded to 
the work of the feet. But they are not formed 
for so great a variety of motions ; their solid part 
is larger and firmer, and the movable divisions are 
shorter and with much less capacity for varied and 
quick movements. Their thumbs, also, or great 
toes, are not intended to meet and assist the indi- 
vidual motions of the other toes, but step squarely 
with them, bearing a great part of the burden, 
and merely balancing the others. As to touch, 
again, though the feet are perhaps more sensi- 
tive than the hands to impressions from without, 
they have far less power of examining and individ- 
ualizing the sources of those impressions. It is 



266 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

enough for them to know quickly that they are 
there, and, if injurious, must be avoided or re- 
moved. They leave it to the hands to examine 
into the nature of them and do the work of re- 
moving. Their work is to support the body, and 
carry it firmly from place to place. They are not 
intended to express and communicate what is in 
us, nor to operate upon objects outside of our- 
selves. They are simply to carry ourselves for- 
ward, feeling the ground as they go, and stepping 
firmly. 

Swedenborg makes a curious statement in re- 
gard to the sensitiveness of the feet, which ought 
to be presented here. He says, — 

" I wish also to add that those papillae or glands 
which provide the sole of the foot with an acute 
sense of touch, appear to be woven of fibres from 
the cerebrum itself, which flow down the length of 
the spinal cord, even to its extremity, and after- 
wards go off in the nerves ; so that the sense of 
touch of the sole itself communicates more imme- 
diately with the cerebrum than the touch of ofher 
parts of the body, whence there is a more acute 



THE FEET. 267 



sense in the papillae, and their changes of state 
are instantly presented to the cerebrum ; thus also 
the lasts are connected with the firsts in the cor- 
poreal system." (A. K. Part vii. p. 27.) 

In treating of the correspondence of the hands 
and the feet, Swedenborg says that " the hands 
signify the interiors of the natural, and the feet 
the exteriors of it" (n. 7442); also, "To lift the 
hand signifies power in spiritual things ; and to 
lift the foot signifies power in natural things," and 
he explains, " By spiritual is meant that in the 
natural which is of the light of heaven, and by 
natural that which is of the light of the world." 
(n. 5328.) 

In describing the position of the heavens in the 
Greatest Man, he states that "the highest heaven 
forms the head even to the neck, the second or 
middle heaven forms the breast to the loins and 
the knees, and the lowest or first heaven forms the 
feet even to the soles, and also the arms to the 
fingers" (H. H. 65). To this he adds, "The church 
on earth corresponds to the soles of the feet " 



268 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

(A. E. 606). And again, "The church not con- 
joined to the church in the heavens is meant by 
4 under the feet'; but when it is conjoined it is 
meant by the feet." (A. R. 533.) 

In explaining the words concerning the Two 
Witnesses, that the Spirit of Life from God en- 
tered into them, and they stood upon their feet, 
he says, — 

" By the Spirit of Life from God is signified 
spiritual life, and by standing upon the feet is 
signified natural life agreeing with spiritual, and 
thus vivified by the Lord. That this is signified 
is because by the Spirit of Life is meant the in- 
ternal of man, which is called the internal man, 
which regarded in itself is spiritual ; for the spirit 
of man thinks and wills, and to think and to will 
in itself is spiritual. By standing upon the feet 
is signified the external of man, which also is 
called the external man, which in itself is natural ; 
for the body speaks and does what its spirit thinks 
and wills, and to speak and do is natural. . . . 
Every man who is reformed is first reformed as to 
his internal man, and afterwards as to the external ; 
the internal man is not reformed by merely know- 
ing and understanding the truths and goods by 



THE FEET. 269 



which man is saved, but by willing them and lov- 
ing them ; but the external man by speaking and 
doing the things which the internal man wills and 
loves ; and as far as it does this, so far the man is 
regenerated. That he is not regenerated before is 
because his internal is not before in effect, but 
only in cause, and the cause unless it be in the 
effect is dissipated. It is like a house built upon 
the ice, which falls to the bottom when the ice is 
melted by the sun ; in a word, it is like a man 
without feet upon which he can stand and walk ; 
such is the internal or spiritual man unless it is 
founded in the external or natural." (A. R. 510.) 

The two witnesses were the acknowledgment of 
the Divine Human of the Lord, and a life accord- 
ing to the Commandments ; and they stood upon 
their feet full of the spirit of life from God when 
these two essentials of the New Church were fully 
received by Swedenborg and the angels associated 
with him, and were brought down into the world 
in his life. (See A. E. 665.) 

In general, to walk is to live ; and, in a good 
sense, it is to live in the Lord's ways, and to 
carry the spirit into the new states to which His 



270 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



ways lead. As the hands, therefore, are the love 
of communicating and doing good, the feet are 
the love of obeying and of doing right. 

The provinces from the knees to the feet are in 
this love of obedience ; and men on earth are in 
conjunction with them and live with their power 
when they love above all things to live the Com- 
mandments from the Lord. Through this love 
the Lord leads the race into new states and con- 
ditions of life. In the heavens the experiences 
acquired here are better understood, and attain 
fuller development ; but here the advance is made 
into the new conditions and applications of truth, 
which is appropriately done by those in the prov- 
ince of the feet. 

If we may trust Swedenborg's statement about 
the connection between the sensitive soles of the 
feet and the cerebrum, we should infer that not 
only are they who love the commandments living 
in unity with the lowest heaven, but they receive 
also the immediate attention and care of the angels 
with whom the Lord is most sensibly present, the 



THE FEET. 



271 



wisest of the angels, who thus are enabled to 
care for their state with all the resources of the 
heavens, especially by commanding for their ser- 
vice the provinces of the hands and arms and legs 
and feet. 

I will add only a word in regard to the differ- 
ence between the right and the left sides. " The 
things which are on the right side," Swedenborg 
tells us, " correspond to good from which are 
truths, and the things of the left side correspond 
to truths by which is good/' (A. C. 10,061.) 

The right hand, therefore, responds to the call 
of the will, and expresses the power of the will ; 
but the motions of the left are made with thought 
and comparative difficulty, and are also weaker. 

But in walking, the left foot is by common 
usage made the leading foot, and Swedenborg 
declares that evil spirits turn their bodies about 
from right to left, but good spirits from left to 
right. (D. L. W. 270.) The cause of this he as- 
cribes to the direction of the heavenly gyres in 
the good, and the contrary direction in the evil. 



272 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



But the cause of this may be that it is good and 
heavenly for the will to be guided by the under- 
standing, and to learn to love what is true and 
right ; but it is infernal for the will to compel the 
understanding to think from and to confirm the 
natural desires and impulses. 



THE EAR. 



HPHE external ear is an organ for receiving and 
collecting the vibrations which we recognize 
as sound. This outer ear is composed of elastic, 
vibratory cartilage, covered closely with a protect- 
ing skin, and thrown into sweeping folds, no doubt 
conforming to the natural sweeps of aerial undu- 
lations, and designed to catch them all, coming 
from every direction, and conduct them to the 
inner ear. This is a conduction of vibrations, not 
of air; and it is accomplished partly by the recep- 
tion of the vibrations by the cartilage itself, and 
partly by the reflection and concentration of these 
vibrations into the column of air leading into the 
auditory tube. No doubt the vibrations of the 
cartilage and those of the adjacent air make one ; 
and as the cartilage reflects and turns the little 
waves towards the inner ear, it accompanies them 
with sympathetic tremblings to the bony passage, 



2 74 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



and, on the under side, even half-way through the 
passage; nor does it leave them till it has had 
time to impart its tremulous sympathy to the 
bone itself, with which it is strongly and closely 
connected. 

Across this bony tube, at a distance of a little 
less than an inch from the surface of the skull, 
is stretched a membrane commonlv called the 
drum of the ear. It is really a triple membrane, 
composed of a fibrous layer in the middle stretched 
from bone to bone, covered outside by a delicate 
continuation of the skin which lines the tube, and 
inside by another delicate membrane continuous 
with the lining of the middle cavity of the ear. 

Upon this drum, or tympanum, are concentrated 
all the motions which have been gathered from 
the atmosphere, which are now imparted to the 
drum by the air itself, which is in contact with 
it ; by the lining membrane of the tube, which 
forms the outer skin of the drum ; and by the 
tremblings of the bone in which the circumfer- 
ence of its middle layer is inserted. 



THE EAR. 



275 



The sounds that thus come to the drum of the 
ear are a confused mass, in immense variety as to 
force, pitch and quality, mingled together appar- 
ently in hopeless perplexity. It is like the stream 
of fluids brought to a gland — as, for instance, by 
the portal vein to the liver — there to be strained 
and sorted ; the worthless to be cast out, the better 
sort to be put to a low use, and the pure, refined 
stream to be sent into the circulation for the bene- 
fit of the life of the body. 

In the ear the stream to be examined is not 
a stream of fluid, but of motion ; and we must 
look not for open passages, but for conductors of 
vibrations. 

In the drum of the ear, with its adjacent bony 
wall, the expectant mass of vibrations is collected, 
searching for avenues of entrance. Conspicuous 
among these avenues is .a chain of three small 
bones, one end of which is attached to the middle 
of the drum, at the point of greatest motion, and 
the other, in shape like the flat plate of a stirrup, 
is continuous as to its periosteum with another 



276 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

little membranous window on the opposite side of 
the chamber across which the chain is extended. 
That inner membranous window is the entrance 
to another chamber, properly called the inner ear, 
whose wonderful structure w 7 e w r ill consider pres- 
ently. The chamber crossed by the chain of bones 
is called the middle ear. The bones are arranged 
as a series of levers in such a manner that what- 
ever motion is imparted to them by the drum is 
carried to the inner window with a somewhat 
diminished range of motion, but proportionately 
increased force. They seem capable of receiving 
and transmitting every variety and form of atmos- 
pheric tremble ; but, however rapidly the trem- 
blings may succeed one another, only one pulsation 
can be conveyed at a time, and thus the pulsations 
to be examined are in a degree strained of their 
conflicting elements, arranged in a sequence, and 
transmitted distinctly to the inner ear. Other 
vibrations not thus conveyed successively and dis- 
tinctly by the bones, are transmitted more ob- 
scurely by the air which fills the middle ear, and 



THE EAR. 



277 



also by its lining membrane and bony walls, and 
are received obscurely by the free rim of the 
membranous window to which the chain is applied, 
by another membranous window, called the round 
window, and by the bony wall of the inner ear. 
The most violent vibrations, which, if allowed to 
act with unmodified force would injure the inner 
ear, are as it were rejected by the way of the 
Eustachian tube, which leads from the middle ear 
to the pharynx ; and perhaps are neutralized in 
part by the air of the large air-cells in the mas- 
toid process, which opens into the middle ear 
opposite to the Eustachian tube. 

The particular stream of pulsations which shall 
be received by the little bones is in a considerable 
degree determined by small muscles, which, by 
pulling upon the bones, regulate the tension of 
the membranes, and thus tune them to receive 
most distinctly the sounds selected. In this, too, 
the ear resembles the glands, every one of which 
draws to itself a stream of such materials as it 
desires. 



278 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

It is in part because the ear has this power 
of selection that the Lord commands us, " Take 
heed what ye hear." 

It is by the action of these muscles that we 
are enabled to attend to the sounds of a single 
instrument in an orchestra, one part in a choir, 
one voice in a company, an individual bird or 
cricket in the chorus of a summer's day ; which 
sound thus chosen is carried to the inner ear dis- 
tinctly by the chain of bones, and is accompanied 
obscurely by the other sounds. 

Arrived at the oval window of the inner ear, 
the current of pulsations finds ready admittance, 
and permeates with its successive thrills a delicate 
fluid which fills all the chambers of the inner ear, 
containing freely suspended in itself minute stony 
particles. And, first, it is received in a somewhat 
spacious ante-room, or vestibule, whose wall is 
loosely lined with an inner wall of membrane plen- 
tifully supplied with fibres of the auditory nerve. 

As the pulsations advance successively to the 
inner chambers, their more subtile elements will 



THE EAR. 279 



be disclosed and set free ; but here at the entrance 
their general quality is first perceived, as to its 
loudness or softness, continuity or interruptions ; 
to which general perception the simple form of 
the anteroom is well adapted. 

From the part of the vestibule sometimes called 
" the utriculus," open three semi-circular canals. 
These, like the vestibule, enclose loose membra- 
nous linings which repeat their own forms, and 
which, in a bulb-like swelling at one end of each 
canal, contain a large supply of nervous fibres. 

At present the scientific view of these canals is 
that their use is not as organs of hearing, but as 
means of preserving the equilibrium. No doubt 
they have this use ; but it is not so easy to believe 
that they have no part in the function of hearing. 
The eyes, also, in some persons, are an important 
means of equilibration ; but no one can doubt that 
this is secondary to their function of sight. In 
the eyes, however, the assistance in preserving the 
equilibrium is dependent on the sight ; but this 
service from the canals does not at all depend 



2 8o PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

upon the hearing, but upon the motion of the 
fluid contents. 

The membranous canals exist in fishes, and 
their bony walls also in reptiles, which have 
scarcely a trace of the inmost part of the ear, 
the cochlea, which receives its full development 
only in warm-blooded animals, and especially in 
mammals. 

If the canals do have any part in the hearing, 
probably it is to distinguish articulations ; for the 
first process in analysis should be to measure 
the last modification given to the tones, which, in 
speaking, is by the mouth in forming words. It 
seems as if the canals lying on three sides of a 
cube could measure any form that could be given 
by the mouth. 

Having received from the stream of sound the 
impression of force and quantity in the vestibule, 
and possibly of the forms of its articulations in 
the canals, there remain to be distinctly perceived 
its pitch and musical quality, and those more deli- 
cate thrills within the tones, which express the 



THE EAR. 281 



interior affection of the speakers or singers, and 
which are commonly attributed wholly to the 
" overtones," but may in part have another origin. 
For this analysis, we have left an instrument of 
exquisite adaptation to the purpose called " the 
cochlea." 

Into the hollow centre of a spiral staircase, 
resembling in its outer covering two and a half 
turns of a snail-shell, enters a large nerve, which 
extends its fibres plentifully over the elastic, bony 
stairs. These delicate plates of bone are attached 
at their inner ends to the core of the shell. At 
the lower part, where the diameter is large, they 
are long ; but they diminish with the spiral to the 
top, like the diminishing teeth of the comb of a 
musical-box. At their outer end they are free, 
but there the membranes which cover them above 
and below separate, and leave a triangular space 
between them as they run divergently to the 
outer wall of the shell. In this little spiral 
chamber, coiled at the outer edge of the stairs, 
is a most delicate apparatus of nervous fibres 



282 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 

and cells and hairs, almost too minute for the 
microscope, called the " organ of Corti." 

We must not forget to notice that the shell is 
filled above and below the staircase with conduct- 
ing fluid, which passes freely from one side to 
the other through an opening over the stairs ; 
that the space over the staircase opens immedi- 
ately into the vestibule ; and that under the 
.staircase is the membrane of the round window, 
communicating with the middle ear. 

The elastic, bony fibres of the staircase are 
sufficient in number and variety to harmonize in 
vibration with musical tones of any shades of 
pitch which we have the power to appreciate ; 
and at their extremities lies an apparatus dis- 
tinctly more minute and exquisite, capable of ap- 
preciating an inner music within the music, if 
such there may be. 

The organ of Corti does not exist in birds ; 
though they undoubtedly can distinguish varia- 
tions of pitch quickly and accurately. 

It is still a question among physiologists, whether 



THE EAR. 



283 



the vibrations which arc perceived as sound affect 
the bones and fluids of the ear as to their masses 
or as to their particles, — whether for example, the 
little chain of the middle ear is shaken as a chain, 
or communicates the thrills of sound by the vibra- 
tions of the particles of bone and membrane of 
which the chain is composed. 

Swedenborg believed that both motions existed, 
— that the larger forms of motion and of sound 
were communicated by the general motions of 
the bones and fluids, and that a more subtile 
tremor permeated the very substance of the bones, 
membranes, and fluids. 

The things extracted or secreted from the stream 
of sound by the laboratory of the ear are not fluids 
or solids, but motions ; they are not even forms 
of fluids or solids, as are the impressions received 
by the organs of touch, taste, and smell ; but they 
are forms of living activity. And these varieties 
of living motion are distinctly communicated to 
the fibres of the auditory nerve, and by them 
imparted to the brain. 



284 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

The portion of the brain which is the seat of 
the conscious reception of sounds through the 
ear, lies quite near, in what is called the superior 
tempero-sphenoidal convolution. But an impor- 
tant part of the auditory nerve goes direct to the 
cerebellum, which is the seat of the affections of 
the life, and of involuntary motion, and there has 
a tendency to produce immediate impulsive action 
in response to its impulses. 

The optic nerves are cerebral nerves, having no 
direct communication with the cerebellum. They 
minister, therefore, primarily to the intelligence ; 
but the auditory nerves minister directly to the 
affections as well as to the intelligence. Probably 
the conscious hearing, with intelligent reception of 
the ideas conveyed by the sounds, is in the con- 
volution of the cerebrum especially devoted to this 
sense. Other effects of warning or guidance or 
direction, are produced through the cerebellum, 
and by indirect communication with other parts 
of the cerebrum. 



THE EAR. 



285 



"The things which enter by the sense of sight, 
enter into man's understanding and enlighten him ; 
. . . but the things which enter by the sense of 
hearing, enter into the understanding and at the 
same time into the will ; wherefore by the hearing 
is signified perception and obedience. Hence it is 
that in human language it is a received form of ex- 
pression to speak of hearing any one, and also of 
giving ear to any one ; likewise of being a hearer, 
and of hearkening ; and by hearing any one is un- 
derstood to perceive, and by giving ear to any one 
is meant to obey ; as also by being a hearer; and 
both are signified by hearkening. This form of ex- 
pression has flowed down from the spiritual world, 
in which the spirit of man is ; but whence this is 
in the spiritual world shall also be explained. They 
who, in the spiritual world, are in the province of 
the ear, are forms of obedience from perception ; 
. . . and the province of the ear is in the axis of 
heaven, and- therefore into it, or into those who are 
there, the whole spiritual world flows, with the per- 
ception that it must so be done ; for this is the 
reigning perception in heaven ; hence it is that 
they who are in that province are forms of obedi- 
ence from perception. 

"That the things which enter by hearing, enter 
immediately by the understanding into the will, 



286 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

may be further illustrated by the instruction of 
the angels of the celestial kingdom, who are the 
wisest. Those angels receive all their wisdom by 
hearing, and not by sight ; for whatever they hear 
of Divine things, from veneration and love, they 
receive in the will and make of their life. . . . From 
these things it is manifest that hearing is given to 
man chiefly for receiving wisdom, but sight for 
receiving intelligence ; wisdom is to perceive, will, 
and do ; intelligence is to learn and perceive." (A. 

E. 14.)* 

" The spirits who correspond to the hearing, or 
who constitute the province of the ear, are they 
who are in simple obedience, that is, who do not 
reason whether a thing be so, but because it is so 
said by others, they believe that it is so. . . . There 
are many varieties of the spirits who correspond to 
the ear, that is, to its functions and offices ; there 
are those who relate to each little organ in it, to 
the external ear, to the membrane which is called 
the drum of the ear, to the interior membranes 
which are called windows (fenestrate), to the malleus, 
the stapes, the incus, the canals, the cochlea, and 
to parts still deeper, even to those substances which 
are nearer to the spirit, and which at length are in 

* Also H. H. 270, 271. 



THE EAR. 287 



the spirit, and lastly are intimately conjoined with 
those who belong to the internal sight, from whom 
they are distinguished by this, that they have not 
so much discernment, but assent to them as if 
passive." (A. C. 4653.) 

" There was a spirit who spoke with me at the 
left auricle, at its hinder part, where are the elevat- 
ing muscles of the auricle ; he told me that he was 
sent to say that he does not at all reflect upon the 
things which others say, provided he takes them 
in with his ears. ... It was said that such as attend 
little to the sense of a thing, are they who belong 
to the cartilaginous and bony part of the external 
ear." (n. 4656.) 

"To the interiors of the ear belong those who 
have the sight of the inner hearing, and obey what 
its spirit there dictates, and express its dictates 
fitly." 

After describing some who seem to have been 
perversions of the faculty, he says that one came 
to him who was said to have been " a person of 
the highest reputation in the learned world, and it 
was given me to believe that it was Aristotle." 

Sweclenborg perceived that the things which he 
had written were from interior thought, and that 



288 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

the philosophical terms which he invented were 
not mere terms with him, as they were with 
many of his followers, but were descriptive of in- 
terior things ; " and that he was excited to such 
things by the delight of affection and the desire 
of knowing the things which were of thought, and 
that he followed obediently the things which his 
spirit had dictated ; wherefore he applied himself 
to the right ear." 

After relating some intelligent conversation with 
him concerning analytical knowledge, and about 
the Lord, Swedenborg continues, — 

" A woman appeared to me, who stretched out 
her hand, wishing to stroke his cheek ; when I 
wondered at this, he said that when he was in the 
world such a woman often appeared to him, who as 
it were stroked his cheek, and that her hand was 
beautiful. The angelic spirits said that such women 
sometimes appeared to the ancients, and were called 
by them Pallades, and that she appeared to him 
from spirits who when they lived as men in ancient 
times, were delighted with ideas and indulged in 
thoughts, but without philosophy, and because such 
spirits were with him, and were delighted with him 



THE EAR. 



because he thought interiorly, they presented rep- 
resentatively such a woman." (n. 4658.) 

These things are said to illustrate the quality 
of men who relate to the inner ear, namely, that 
they have an interior perception of truth as if 
it were told to them ; and that they speak and 
write it obediently, delighting in it, and perceiv- 
ing that it is true because it agrees with their 
interior life. 

In the Greatest Man they are in the outer ear 
who love to receive by hearing and impart what 
they receive without discrimination of quality, 
though as they are a part of heaven, they must 
have greater general delight in receiving and 
faithfully repeating good things. The drum of 
the ear loves to collect in a summary, in which 
all particulars are fairly and fully presented, all 
that comes from the outer reporters, The bones 
love to draw from that summary whatever coheres 
in a sequence, and with an inflexible stiffness 
to prevent anything from passing which will not 
make part of a receivable sequence. The vesti- 



290 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



bule loves to perceive and to transmit to the 
brain and to the whole heaven its impressions 
of the power and quantity of the truth received. 
As organs of equilibration, the correspondence of 
the semi-circular canals is perhaps indicated by 
the common expression " to keep a level head," 
that is, to keep a clear sense of our position and 
relation to circumstances, and of what is to be 
done. If they have any part in the hearing, as 
suggested, it is likely to be a part relating defin- 
itely to what is to be done, and this, perhaps, is 
the discernment of articulation. And the cochlea 
loves to know the inner wisdom and purpose of 
the instruction, in its effect upon the harmony 
of the heavens and their openness to receive in- 
terior life from the Lord, which effects conjunc- 
tion with Him. 

All the desire of the heavens for these things 
is concentrated in the ears ; and the ears, in turn, 
transmit to the desiring angels the instruction 
they receive, with their own love for it, and 
desire to obey it. 



THE EAR. 



291 



As to whence come the sounds to the angels 
of the ears, we have no instruction. But they 
may come in part from spirits and men outside 
of the heavens ; for we read that the thoughts 
of these from affection are heard in heaven : — 

"The supplication, although tacit, of those who 
supplicate from the heart, is heard as a cry in 
heaven. This is the case when men only think, 
and more when they bemoan themselves, from a 
sincere heart. ... It is the same with those who 
mourn ; (do lent for do cent) they are heard in heaven 
as crying. Not only the thoughts, but more espe- 
cially the affections, which are of good and truth, 
speak in heaven. . . . Affections for evil and falsity 
are not at all heard in heaven, even if the man who 
supplicates from them cries aloud with his hands 
tightly closed, and raises them and his eyes to 
heaven. These are heard in hell, and there also as 
cries if they are ardent." (A. C. 9202.) * 

Affections and prayers that are only individual, 
we should suppose would be heard only by indi- 
viduals or small societies ; but those that express 

* Also see S. D. 4821. 



292 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



general states of the community might be heard 
by larger bodies. 

Also those in the province of the ears maybe 
affected by the speech of those in the provinces 
of the lungs and the mouth, who utter the Word 
of the Lord and thoughts of Divine wisdom from 
it. 

To the inner ear, besides the interior wisdom 
received from this source, may there not come 
also interior perceptions of wisdom from the Lord 
Himself, as we now receive them from spirits and 
angels ? 



THE EYE. 



U HT*HE light of the body is the eye." Through 
the eye the light affects the body, informs 
the brain, and through the brain all other organs 
of the body. And in the brain it meets the 
mind, which there delights in the forms of life 
which the eye presents to it, and flashes forth 
through the eye a responsive, spiritual light, ex- 
pressive of intelligence and love of knowing. 

With a peculiar tenderness, the body guards and 
protects its delicate organ of light, enclosing it in 
a strong, bony socket, just beneath the brain, 
which socket it softly wads, and then lines with 
smooth and carefully lubricated membranes. It 
shades it and protects it from blows by project- 
ing the roof over it like eaves, and turns away 
the descending moisture of the forehead by the 
capillary eaves-trough of the eye-brows. 

It closes and rests the eyes with smoothly- 



294 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



fitting, elastic shutters, which are provided each 
with a reservoir of tears, and are ever on the 
watch to remove with moistened touch every par- 
ticle of dust, and to keep the surface of the eye 
bright, clear, and moist. 

As to these protecting parts, there is slight 
analogy between the eye and the ear ; for the ear 
deals with the undulations of the air and needs 
protection only from the insects and coarser par- 
ticles which fly in the air; its protective organs 
are therefore limited to a few hairs and the adhe- 
sive cerumen which guard and moisten the audi- 
tory passage. But the eye is concerned with the 
undulations of the ether, and needs protection . 
from the drying, chilling, and chafing of the air 
itself as well as from all the foreign particles 
contained in it. 

Internally the structure of the eye is more 
closely analogous to that of the ear, and we may 
obtain valuable aid from the grosser organ in 
tracing the sequence of uses in the more delicate. 

First, in the ear, we observe the visible auricle 



THE EYE. 



2 95 



with its convolutions turned every way to catch 
and concentrate the vibrations of the air. In the 
eye the correlative function is performed by the 
cornea, — a totally different organ in appearance, 
but perfectly qualified to receive and concentrate 
upon the inner parts of the eye the undulatory 
rays in the ether. 

In the ear next we find the tympanum, which 
receives in a confused mass all the sounds gath- 
ered by the outer ear, and begins the work of 
assorting them; first by neutralizing the most vio- 
lent shocks, with the help of the inner air-cham- 
ber, the mastoid process, and the Eustachian tube, 
and then by transmitting its central undulations in 
a successive stream to the little chain of bones. 

The multitude of rays of light gathered by the 
cornea from various directions are received simi- 
larly upon the iris, which immediately absorbs 
and neutralizes by its own pigment cells and dark 
lining membrane the rays that are too divergent 
and scattering for service, also cutting off by the 
closing of its pupil those that are too intense, 



296 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



and transmits through its centre — the pupil of 
the eye — the rays that are most fit to form 
distinct images. 

Over the bones of the ear are communicated 
successively, one by one, the vibrations of the 
air, to the window of the inner ear, where the 
first branches of the auditory nerve are expanded, 
and the sense of hearing properly begins. And 
through the pupil and the lenses of the eye — 
aqueous, crystalline, and vitreous — are brought to- 
gether upon the surface of the retina, or the first 
general expansion of the optic nerve, the rays that 
proceed successively from the same objects, and 
are capable of leaving a distinct impression of 
their form and colors. The ear has the power 
of selecting the series of sounds to which it will 
attend, as the notes of a single instrument in an 
orchestra, by attuning in agreement with them the 
tympanum and the window of the inner ear, by 
means of the little muscles attached to the chain 
of bones ; and those sounds to which it is attuned 
are transmitted distinctly, but others obscurely. 



rim e ye. 



297 



And so the eye has the power of adjusting its 
sequence of lenses to receive and concentrate dis- 
tinctly the rays that come from a particular object, 
at the same time that they transmit obscurely 
those that come from other objects. This power 
it has partly from the muscles which turn the 
head, and the smaller muscles which direct the 
eye-ball in a particular direction ; but especially 
from the ciliary muscle which encircles the crys- 
talline lens, and by increasing or diminishing the 
convexity of its face, attuning it, as it were to the 
rays that come from different distances, according 
to the desire of observing. 

Within the inner ear we traced in order the 
apparatus for distinguishing quantity or intensity 
of sound, articulation, pitch (including harmony 
and melody), and pathos. And the greater part 
of this apparatus is on a comparatively large scale, 
because the undulatory forms which it measures 
are those of the lowest atmosphere, which is the 
air. 

The correlative qualities of light, which the eye 



298 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

measures, are those of light and shade, or inten- 
sity — which seem to correspond to the qualities 
perceived in the vestibule of the ear, and which 
first strike a child's eye, or our own half-closed — 
then the particulars of form, corresponding to 
those of articulation ; and then the varieties of 
color, to which we apply the term harmony. 

The instruments by which these qualities are 
appropriately received, and their properties of 
varied motion are conveyed to the brain, must 
be as delicate as the vibratory forms of the 
ether. It is no wonder that, except as to their 
most general structure, they have so long escaped 
observation. The closely-woven, nervous net-work, 
from which the retina has its name, has, until 
recently, been the only sensitive part of the appa- 
ratus described ; but now, behind the retina, and 
extending from its fibres outward to the layer 
of pigment cells of the choroid coat of the eye, 
is described a minute and highly complicated ner- 
vous structure of granules and fibres and inter- 
lacings, terminating in a closely set apparatus of 



THE EYE. 299 



minutest rods alternating with cones. It is like 
an exquisitely organized velvet nap standing upon 
the expanded tissue of the optic nerve. 

The precise functions of the several parts of this 
structure are not known ; but it is plain that we 
have here presented forms sufficiently varied and 
delicate for the wonderful work required of them. 

The nerves of sight seem to be connected espe- 
cially with the convolution of the brain which is 
called the " angular gyrus," and also to have con- 
nection with the whole of the occipital lobes. If 
any part of these is in good order, and the con- 
nection undisturbed, the sense of sight is possible. 
No doubt there is indirect communication with 
other parts of the brain ; but not such as to give 
the sense of sight. 

The auditory nerve, as has been said, as to 
one important branch, communicates directly with 
the cerebellum, and is the means of affecting the 
feelings directly as well as the intelligence. The 
nerve of sight affects the intelligence, and the feel- 
ings only through the intelligence. 



300 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 

There is a further difference between the ani- 
mations of sound and those of light, as between 
generals and particulars. For the ether by its 
compositions produces the air, as materials of the 
air again are consolidated into water. The activi- 
ties of the ether, therefore, affect the minute 
forms of the brain of which the generals are com- 
posed, or the single glands by the combination of 
which are formed composite glands. 

As, therefore, through the air and by the ears, 
general animations are communicated, through the 
ether and by the eye are given particulars which 
fill those generals, and which never can be de- 
scribed to the hearing. We know this to be true, 
practically, in regard to scenery and to every work 
of nature ; and Swedenborg says that in heaven 
the angels express to the eye by the curves and 
points of their writing, ideas which cannot be 
communicated by sound. 

The hearing corresponds to the love of being 
instructed, guided, and affected obediently; and 
the correspondence of the sight is with the love 



THE EYE. 



301 



of obtaining clear, distinct ideas, of being intelli- 
gent in spiritual things and wise in heavenly 
things. t 

Swedenborg says, — 

"That the sense of sight corresponds to the 
affection of understanding and being wise, is be- 
cause the sight of the body altogether corresponds 
to the sight of its spirit, thus to the understanding. 
For there are two lights, one which is of the world 
from the sun, and another which is of heaven from 
the Lord ; in the light of the world there is no 
intelligence, but in the light of heaven there is in- 
telligence. Hence as far as the things in man 
which are of the light of the world are illuminated 
by those which are of the light of heaven, so far 
man is intelligent and wise ; that is, as far as they 
correspond.'' (A. C. 4405.) 

" The eye is the most noble organ of the face, 
and communicates with the understanding more 
immediately than the other sensory organs of man. 
It is also modified by a more subtile atmosphere 
than the ear." (n. 4407.) 

" It has been made plain to me by much experi- 
ence that the sight of the left eye corresponds to 
truths which are of the understanding, and the 
right eye to affections of truth which also are of 



302 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



the understanding ; hence that the left eye corre- 
sponds to truths of faith, and the right eye to good 

things of faith." (n. 4410.) 
1 

Perhaps we might interpret these words as 
meaning that the left eye corresponds to the 
understanding of things that we clearly perceive 
to be so ; and the right eye to the understanding 
of things that we love ; or that the left eye cor- 
responds to the understanding of what is true, 
and the right eye to the understanding of what 
is good. 

"All things in the eye have their correspond- 
ences in the heavens ; as the three humors, aqueous, 
vitreous, and crystalline ; and not only the humors 
but the coats also, — yea, every part. The more 
interior things of the eye have the more beautiful 
and pleasant correspondences, but differently in 
each heaven. The light which proceeds from the 
Lord, when it flows into the inmost or third heaven, 
is received there as good which is called charity ; 
and when it flows into the middle or second heaven, 
mediately and immediately, it is received as truth 
which is from charity ; but when this truth flows 
into the lowest or first heaven, mediately and im- 



THE E YE. 



303 



mediately, it is received substantially, and appears 
there as a paradise, and elsewhere as a city in 
which are palaces. Thus the correspondences suc- 
ceed one another even to the external sight of the 
angels. Likewise in man, in the ultimate of sight, 
which is the eye, it is presented materially through 
the sight, whose objects are the things of the visi- 
ble world. Man w r ho is in love and charity, and 
thence in faith, has his interiors such ; for they 
correspond to the three heavens, and he is in form 
a very little heaven." (n. 441 1.) 

" There was a certain person who was known to 
me in the life of the body, but not as to his dispo- 
sition and interior affections ; he has occasionally 
conversed with me in the other life, but a little 
at a distance. He usually manifested himself by 
pleasant representatives ; for he could present such 
things as were delightful, as colors of every kind, 
and beautiful colored forms ; he could introduce 
infants beautifully decorated, and very many like 
things which are pleasant and enjoyable. He acted 
by a gentle and soft influx, and this into the coat 
of the left eye. By such means he insinuated him- 
self into the affections of others, with the end of 
making their life pleasant and delightful. It was 
said to me by the angels that such are they who 
belong to the coats of the eye, and that they com- 



3°4 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



municate with the paradisal heavens where truths 
and goods are represented in substantial form." 
(n. 4412.) 

These paradisal heavens, or societies, I infer 
are in the eyes of the lowest heaven, and com- 
municate by correspondence with the same prov- 
inces of the interior heavens. 

The eyes of the inner heavens are delighted 
with the perception of interior goodness and truth, 
presented in simplest forms; but the eyes of the 
lower heavens love to see and to cause others to 
see the same things in full representatives. Of 
these Swedenborg further teaches, — 

" The eye, or rather its sight, corresponds espe- 
cially with those societies in the other life, which 
are in paradisal things, which appear above, a little 
to the right, where are presented to the life gar- 
dens with so many genera and species of trees and 
flowers that those in the whole world are respec- 
tively few. In every object there, there is some- 
thing of intelligence and wisdom which shines 
forth, so that you may say that they are at the 
same time in paradises of intelligence and wisdom. 



THE EYE. 



305 



These are the things which affect those who are 
there from the mmosts, and thus gladden not only 
their sight, but also at the same time their under- 
standing. Those paradisal things are in the first 
heaven, and in the very entrance to the interiors 
of that heaven, and are representatives which de- 
scend from the higher heaven when the angels of 
the higher heaven converse together intellectually 
concerning the truths of faith. The speech of the 
angels there is by spiritual and celestial ideas, which 
to them are forms of expression, and continually by 
series of representations of such beauty and pleas- 
antness as cannot at all be described. These beau- 
ties and pleasantnesses of their discourse are what 
are represented as paradisal things in the lower 
heaven. This heaven is distinguished into several 
heavens, to which correspond the particulars which 
are in the chambers of the eye. There is the heaven 
where are the paradisal gardens which have been 
spoken of ; there is a heaven where are variously 
colored atmospheres, where the whole air glitters as 
if from gold, silver, pearls, precious stones, flowers, 
in minute forms, and innumerable other things ; 
there is a rainbow heaven, where are most beau- 
tiful rainbows, great and small, variegated with 
most splendid colors. Every one of these things 
exists by the light which is from the Lord, in which 



3°<5 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



are intelligence and wisdom ; hence there is in every 
object there, something of intelligence of truth and 
of wisdom of good, which is thus presented repre- 
sentatively." (n. 4528.) 

Swedenborg also describes " beautiful shrub- 
beries and most pleasant flower-gardens of im- 
mense extent," in which everything shines with 
the changeful light of intelligence and wisdom. 
And he adds, — 

"They who are in the intelligence itself and the 
wisdom, from which those things originate, are in 
such a state of happiness that the things which 
have been mentioned are esteemed by them of but 
little importance. Some also who had said when 
in the paradisal things that they exceeded every 
degree of happiness, were therefore taken more 
toward the right into a heaven which shone with 
still greater splendor, where was likewise the bles- 
sedness of the intelligence and wisdom which was 
in such things ; and then when they were there, 
speaking with me again, they said that the things 
which they had seen before were respectively noth- 
ing. And at length they were taken to that heaven 
where from the satisfaction of interior affection they 
could scarcely subsist ; for the satisfaction pene- 



THE E YE. 



307 



trated to the marrows, which being as it were dis- 
solved by the satisfaction, they began to fall into 
a holy swoon." (n. 4529.) 

Here are described, apparently, those who con- 
stitute the successively interior parts of the eye. 
Possibly they who are in the first sensitive coat 
and the adjacent humor love the paradisal repre- 
sentatives ; those in a more interior province de- 
light in the intelligence and wisdom represented; 
and those in an inmost department are satisfied 
with the interior affection from which that wisdom 
exists. 

These provinces, as here described, appear to 
have been near together and closely related — not 
in widely separated heavens. Probably they were 
all in the inmost Christian heaven, the situation 
of which agrees with what is said of these para- 
disal heavens. 

Here, also, in the eyes of the Christian heaven, 
are the homes of those who now die as infants. 
(A. R. 876.) They are in the province of the 
eyes (H. H. 333) ; those of a celestial disposition 



3 o8 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 

in the right eye, and those of a spiritual nature 
in the left, " directly in the line or radius in 
which angels look to the Lord." (H. H. 332.) 
"They are surrounded by atmospheres according 
to the state of their perfection ; . . . especially 
there are presented to them atmospheres as of 
playing infants in least inconspicuous forms, but 
perceptible only by an inmost idea ; from these 
they receive the heavenly idea that all the things 
about them are alive, and that they are in the 
life of the Lord, which affects them with inmost 
happiness." (A. C. 2297.) "They are instructed 
by representatives ; . . . and these are so beauti- 
ful, and at the same time so full of wisdom from 
within as to surpass belief." (H. H. 335.) Indeed, 
by simplest representatives they are instructed in 
the holiest things of the Lord's mercy and provi- 
dence, which they perceive very clearly, though 
in a simple and infantile manner. And in their 
delightful gardens, the flowers of which flash glad- 
ness through their glowing colors (n. 337), they en- 
joy delightful perceptions of innocence and charity. 



THE EYE. 309 

It is impossible not to see the likeness of infants 
in the transparent humors of the eye, full of the 
forming images of light. And among these humors 
that most delicate fluid immediately under the cor- 
nea, receiving all light, but without distinctions, is 
unmistakably like the first state of infancy, open 
to all impressions, yet seizing none but the most 
general — even in regard to sight, being content 
with the light, and scarcely discriminating even 
the brightest colors. The next medium is the 
crystalline lens, which is strongly characterized 
by the effort to receive distinctly the light from 
particular things, and seems plainly to correspond 
to infants in their effort to fix their attention, 
to discriminate, and to recognize particular ob- 
jects. The vitreous humor continues the effort 
to concentrate the light in distinct images, and 
lies all around in contact with the retina, upon 
which such images are formed. Is not this the 
heaven in which children are taught by elabo- 
rate representatives, carefully and fully presented ? 
Here also must be the paradises in which are so 



3io 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



many perfect forms of human intelligence and 
affection. 

It is in the different heavens corresponding 
to the chambers of the eye, that the beautiful 
atmospheres appear. It is in one of these, pos- 
sibly the outer chamber, that "the universal aura 
glitters as if from gold, silver, pearls, precious 
stones, flowers in their least forms, and innumer- 
able things." (A. C. 1621.) In an inner heaven, 
which seems beautifully like the crystalline cham- 
ber surrounded by the iris, "the whole atmosphere 
appears to consist of very small, continued rain- 
bows. . . . Around is the form of a very large 
rainbow, encompassing the whole heaven, most 
beautiful, being composed of similar smaller rain- 
bows, which are images of the larger. Every 
single color thus consists of innumerable rays 
constituting one general, perceptible ray, which is 
as it were a modification of the origins of light 
from the celestial and spiritual things which pro- 
duce it, and which at the same time present to 
the sight a representative idea." (n. 1623; see 
also n. 4528.) 



THE EYE. 



3" 



With the children in these beautiful heavens 
are the mothers and maidens who care for them, 
themselves in sympathy with the open innocence 
of the children, but wise to guide them in their 
heavenly sports. And penetrating everywhere 
through the humors are said to be, and no doubt 
there are, delicate tubes and fibres, as transparent 
as the humors, keeping them constantly changing 
according to their needs and the requirements of 
the eye. 

The objects of delight to the eyes, and sight 
and enlightenment to the heavens, are revelations 
of truth and goodness from the Lord Himself, 
with the representatives of them. These revela- 
tions have a general ultimate in our Scriptures, 
just as all possible human uses and relations 
have a general representative in the human body. 
Divine wisdom concerning the development of 
human life is contained in the Word, and shines 
from it as light to the eyes of angels, or can be 
presented as beautiful representatives of human 
affection and thought. There are no beautiful 



312 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



things in heaven or on earth that are not rep- 
resentatives of these. 

" The Word of the Lord, when it is read by a 
man who loves it and who lives in charity, and even 
by a man who from a simple heart believes what is 
written, having formed no principles contrary to 
the truth of faith contained in the internal sense, 
is displayed by the Lord to the angels with such 
beauty and with such pleasantness, accompanied 
also by representatives, — and this with an inex- 
pressible variety according to the whole state of 
the angels at the time — that every particular is 
perceived as if it had life." (n. 1767.) 

"The angels have a clearer and fuller under- 
standing of the internal sense of the Word when 
it is read by little boys and girls than when by 
adults who are not in the faith of charity. The 
reason is, as was told me, that little children are in 
a state of mutual love and innocence, consequently 
their vessels are most tender and almost heavenly, 
so as to be pure faculties of receiving, which there- 
fore are capable of being disposed by the Lord, 
although this does not come to their perception 
except by a certain delight suitable to their genius. " 
(n. 1776.) 

" In the literal sense, scarce anything appears 



THE EYE. 



3^3 



but a something without order ; still, when it is 
read by man, particularly by a little boy or girl, it 
becomes by degrees, as it ascends, more beautiful 
and delightful, and at length is presented before 
the Lord as the image of a man, in and by which 
heaven is represented in its complex, not as it is, 
but as the Lord wills it to be, namely, as a likeness 
of Himself." (n. 1871.) 

From this that is said of children in this world 
we can have an idea of the use of the province 
of children in heaven ; for children here are asso- 
ciated with children in the other world, and their 
uses are one. 

To children in heaven comes the light which is 
the Word, representing before them good ways of 
life and lovely varieties of human affection and 
thought from Himself, such as the Lord desires 
the heavens to receive from Him. These the 
children perceive in their childlike way ; but from 
their very perfect childlike ideas, angels corre- 
sponding to the optic nerves, of quickest and 
most interior perception, whose special delight it 
is to receive new desires from the Lord, perceive 



314 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 



the Lord's desires and plans for the formation and 
perfection of the heavens. 

This pure and beautiful wisdom they communi- 
cate to the societies of the whole inmost heaven 
(or brain), by whom it is adapted and sent forth 
to all other parts of the heavens, according to 
their functions. 

Swedenborg's description of children in heaven 
is so full and sympathetic as to show a remark- 
ably minute acquaintance with them. And there 
are other things which show- his familiarity with 
the province of the eyes. His account of the visit 
of the ten strangers to the heavenly society, where 
they were instructed in the nature of heavenly joy, 
seems like the account of an eye-witness. And in 
that society were seen children with their nurses. 
Its emblem, also, was an eagle brooding her young 
at the top of a tree ; which seems perfect as rep- 
resenting those who are in clear sight, and engaged 
in the education of children. The nearness of 
Swedenborg's own state to this is evident from 
the remark that " a man who draws wisdom from 



THE EYE. 3 ! S 



God is like a bird flying on high, which looks 
about upon all things that are in the gardens, 
woods, and villages, and flies to those things that 
will be of use to it." (T. C. R. 69.) It will be 
remembered that the angels of the nose perceived 
that the angelic societies with Swedenborg were 
from the province of the eye. (A. C. 4627.) 

A few words only remain to be said with regard 
to the correspondence of weeping, — 

" That weeping (or lamentation — fletus) is grief 
of heart, may appear from this consideration, that 
it bursts forth from the heart, and breaks out into 
lamentations through the mouth ; and that shed- 
ding of tears (Jacrymatid) is grief of mind, may 
appear from this consideration, that it issues forth 
from the thought through the eyes. In both, as 
well weeping as shedding tears, water goes forth, 
but bitter and astringent, which goes forth by in- 
flux from the spiritual world into the grief of man, 
where bitter water corresponds to defect of truth 
on account of falsities, and hence to grief." (A. E. 
484.) 

The proper function of the tears is to keep 
the eye moist and clear, and they correspond to 



316 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



thoughts from the love of clear sight. Tears of 
joy correspond to thoughts from delight in per- 
ceiving good things ; tears of sorrow, to bitter 
thoughts in not perceiving what is loved ; " bitter 
tears of disappointment" is a common expression. 






GENERATION AND REGENERATION. 



PHERE are heavenly societies to which cor- 
■*- respond all and each of the members and 
organs allotted to generation in each sex. Those 
societies are distinct from others, as also that prov- 
ince in man is properly distinguished and separate 
from the rest. That those societies are heavenly 
is because marriage love is the fundamental love 
of all loves. ... It excels the rest also in use, and 
consequently in delight ; for marriages are the sem- 
inaries of the whole human race, and also the sem- 
inaries of the Lord's heavenly kingdom, for heaven 
is from the human race. They who have loved 
infants most tenderly, as mothers who do so, are 
in the province of the womb and of the organs 
round about, namely in the province of the neck 
of the womb, and of the ovaries ; and they who 
are there, are in the sweetest and most delightful 
life, and in heavenly joy above others." (A. C. 
5053, 5054-) 

Of these heavenly societies we read further, — 

" They who are there are in peace beyond all 



3 1 8 PHYSIOL O GICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

others. Peace in the heavens is comparatively like 
the spring season in the world, which gives delight 
to all things ; it is the heavenly itself in its origin. 
The angels who dwell there are the wisest of all, 
and from innocence appear to others as children. 
They also love infants much more than their fathers 
and mothers do. They are present with infants in 
the womb, and by them the Lord takes care that 
infants there shall be nourished and perfected. 
Thus they have charge over those who are with 
child." (A. C. 5052.) 

" It was told me that the organs of generation 
form a distinct kingdom by themselves, as in man 
also they are distinct or separate." (S. D. 499+.) 

This province is said to be separate from the 
rest of the heaven as the corresponding organs 
of the body are ; and although in position the 
lowest of the abdominal provinces, the angels who 
compose it are said to be the wisest and best of 
the angels. And this is because they constitute 
the ultimate in which the Lord is immediately 
present, and through which He produces the medi- 
ates. By means of these provinces the minds of 
men are formed, even to their inmosts in which 
life from the Lord is immediately received ; there- 



GENERA TION AND REGENERA TION 3 1() 



fore there is a greater fulness of the Divine Life 
here than elsewhere. And, as we shall see pres- 
ently, here in the ultimate the three heavenly 
degrees exist simultaneously. 

Swedenborg says that "the spirits who are below 
heaven wonder very much when they hear and 
see that heaven is below as well as above ; for 
they are in a similar faith and opinion with men 
in the world, that heaven is nowhere else than 
above ; for they do not know that the situation 
of the heavens is as the situation of the mem- 
bers, organs, and viscera in man, of which some 
are above and some below." (H. H. 66.) 

The world of spirits, in which are the spirits 
who wonder thus, is in the plane of the stomach ; 
and some provinces are above and some are below 
that plane. The position of the organs of gener- 
ation, below that plane, seems to be referred to in 
Psalm cxxxix., where it is spoken of as "the lowest 
parts of the earth." 

"Thou hast possessed my reins : Thou hast cov- 
ered me in my mother's womb. 



3 2 ° 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 



"I will give thanks unto Thee; for I am fear- 
fully and wonderfully made. 

" Wonderful are Thy works ; and that my soul 
knoweth right well. 

"My frame was not hid from Thee, when I was 
made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest 
parts of the earth. 

" Thine eyes did see my unperfect substance, 
and in Thy book were all my members written, 
which day by day were fashioned, when as yet 
there was none of them." (v. 13-16.) 

This position of the organs is like that of the 
altar of burnt-offering in the court at the door of 
the tabernacle ; and all the worship at that altar 
had a correspondence with processes of regenera- 
tion, and these correspond to natural generation. 
More will be said of this correspondence presently. 

It is necessary that these provinces should be 
in immediate relation with men on the earth, 
because both generation and regeneration must be 
effected, or at least begun, in the natural world. 
Like the work of the hands and the feet, this is 
one of the ultimates of the work of the heavens, 
in which they act together with men upon the 
earth. 



GENERATION AND REGENERATION. 



321 



As the work of regeneration is a work of purifi- 
cation from evil, as well as of reception of new 
life from the Lord, the corresponding organs of 
generation are also organs of excretion ; for the 
beginnings of new life from the Lord are received 
as false and evil things are repented of and re- 
jected, and the sense of reception is in the faculty 
of rejection. The embryo is matured between the 
bladder and the rectum ; and so the things of re- 
generate life are nourished and grow in the midst 
of efforts to control and put away evil and falsity. 

In approaching the more particular explanation 
of the uses and correspondences of these things, 
we are met by the difficulty which Swedenborg 
expresses as follows : — 

" But who and of what quality the societies are 
which pertain to the particular organs of genera- 
tion, it has not been given me to know ; for they 
are more interior than can be comprehended by 
one who is in a lower sphere. They also relate to 
the uses of those organs, which are concealed, and 
also are withdrawn from knowledge for a reason 
which also is of the Divine Providence, lest such 



3 22 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



things as are in themselves most heavenly should 
be hurt by unclean thoughts of lasciviousness, scor- 
tation, and adultery, which thoughts are excited 
with very many when those organs are only men- 
tioned." (A. C. 5055.) 

We shall, however, I trust, be able to describe 
and interpret the uses in general ; and I have 
hope that the innocent and holy thoughts that 
will appear to belong to them, will be permanently 
associated with them in our minds, and be a 
lasting influence for purity and protection. 

Natural prolification is from spiritual, and they 
help to illustrate each other. Swedenborg says, — 

"The seed of man is conceived interiorly in the 
understanding, and is formed in the will, and thence 
is transferred into the testicle, where it puts on a 
natural covering ; and so it is carried on into the 
womb, and enters the world." (T. C. R. 584.) 

It is inmostly the masculine perception of truth, 
which is formed in the will by the intent to 
propagate it. In regard to spiritual propagation — 
truth to be propagated must first be clothed and 



GENERATION AND REGENERATION. 



3 2 3 



expressed. In its purest state it is only the form 
of love ; its purest clothing is that of ideas of 
thought ; then follow illustrations or formulated 
thoughts which can be retained in the memory ; 
and then words. When thus triply clad, it can be 
expressed and communicated. And upon reach- 
ing a receptive mind there is a correlative series 
of unclothings. First, the words or natural ex- 
pressions are cast aside, and the illustrations or 
formulas are understood ; then the pure ideas are 
seen interiorly, and received ; and then the love, 
which affects the mind inmostly. 

There is a corresponding series of clothings and 
unclothings of the seed which embodies naturally 
the spiritual truth. 

Its first natural embodiment is in the pure ani- 
mal spirit separated in the testicle ; without being 
too sure of the exact series of clothings, it appears 
to be true that this receives a first clothing in 
the epididymes, which are a series of much con- 
voluted tubes attached to the testicles ; the second 
clothing is apparently imparted in the seminal 



3 2 4 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



vesicles, where the seed may be stored, like ideas 
in definite thoughts, until ready for utterance ; and 
the last is added in the very act of ejection, by 
the prostate gland. 

But when received, this outer clothing appears 
to be separated, or absorbed, by the neck of the 
womb ; the second, by the womb itself, before the 
entrance into the Fallopian tubes ; and the third by 
the Fallopian tubes, setting free the pure spirit to 
enter the ovum. Thus, if I understand the par- 
allel correctly, the ovum answers to the testicle, 
and receives only the pure spirit secreted by it ; 
the Fallopian tubes answer to the epididymes ; the 
womb to the seminal vesicles ; and the neck of 
the womb to the prostate gland. It may be that 
in the ovum even the first natural embodiment 
of the spiritual substance from the mind is sepa- 
rated, and the mental substance is set free for an 
entirely new embodiment from the mother ; for 
Swedenborg says that " all the spiritual which man 
has is from the father, and all the material is 
from the mother." (T. C. R. 92.) 



GENERATION AND REGENERATION. 



3 2 5 



There seems to be in this successive clothing a 
series of degrees answering to the degrees of the 
heavens ; the inmost answering to the state of 
wisdom of the inmost heaven, which is love and 
the perceptions of love, rather than thought ; the 
clothing of the epididymes answering to the intel- 
ligence of the angels of the second heaven ; that 
of the vesicles answering to the representatives, 
or the formulas of knowledge in the memory, of 
the first heaven ; and that of the prostate to the 
literal expressions. 

Of the angels of the inmost heaven we are 
told many beautiful things ; the following (from 
A. E. 828) illustrate what has just been said of 
the inmosts of this province : — 

"They appear before the angels of the lower 
heavens as infants, some as children, and all as 
simple. They also go naked. They appear as 
infants and as children because they are in inno- 
cence, and love to the Lord from the Lord is inno- 
cence ; hence also by infants and children in the 
Word innocence and also love to the Lord is signi- 
fied. They appear simple because they cannot 



326 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



speak about the holy things of heaven and the 
church ; for they do not have them in the memory, 
whence is all thought, but in the life, and thence 
in the understanding — not as thought, but as affec- 
tion for good in its own form, which does not come 
down into speech, and if it did descend it would 
not speak, but only sound ; and they who cannot 
speak of such things, appear to themselves and to 
others as simple ; and also they are in humility of 
heart, knowing that it is wisdom to perceive that 
what they know is scarcely any thing compared 
with what they do not know. They go naked be- 
cause nakedness in the spiritual sense is innocence, 
and because garments signify truths clothing good, 
and the truths which clothe are in the memory and 
thence in the thought ; but with these, truths are 
in the life, thus hidden, and do not manifest them- 
selves except to the perception whilst others speak 
them, and their ministers preach them from the 
Word." (Also see H. H. 178, 179; S. D. 5179.) 

The three degrees are present simultaneously 
in the ultimates, in the giving of the Word, and 
in the prolification which corresponds to it. But 
the ultimate of prolification, which corresponds 
to the propagation of wisdom, is not a communi- 



GENERATION AND REGENERATION. 



3 2 7 



cation of words, or of distinct thoughts, but of 
the living soul itself — of the specific modifications 
of which, thoughts and words are the interpreta- 
tion. (See C. L. 220.) 

If it were a propagation of definite thoughts, 
children would be born thoughts ; but as it is a 
propagation of soul they are born affections for 
wisdom or goodness, with an aptitude for thoughts 
of wisdom and enjoyments of goodness. 

" Children born of parents who are in true mar- 
riage love, derive from their parents the faculty of 
marriage of good and truth, from which they have 
an inclination and faculty, if sons, to perceive the 
things of wisdom, and if daughters to love the 
things which wisdom teaches." (C. L. 202.) 

And so, also, if there were a propagation of 
distinct thoughts, the wife would receive from her 
husband such definite thoughts. It is evident that 
she does not ; but receives such affection for wis- 
dom as keeps her in sympathy with him, and in 
a state to understand and enjoy such spiritual 
wisdom as he enjoys. 



328 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

In marriages in the heavens there is no beget- 
ting of separate human beings ; but there is the 
multiplication of spiritual affections and percep- 
tions in the minds of the partners. On earth 
there is this spiritual prolification, and also a nat- 
ural prolification ; the spiritual prolification is from 
the actual reception of the soul of the husband 
by the wife, and her cherishing of it in herself 
and in him ; and the natural prolification is from 
the reception of the propagations of his soul in 
the ova which are cherished and nourished, even 
till the time of birth, in the womb. 

To speak first of the spiritual effects : In a true 
marriage the husband is in the love of doing good 
to the wife, of sharing his life with her, and 
increasing her life. What might have been a 
selfish and lustful thing is changed to this pure 
and beneficent thing; and he ceases to act from 
any mere selfish motive. The wife, also, is in the 
love of receiving the life of her husband, and 
making it delightful to him, which she does by 
her bosom-love. And in both, in this interchange, 



GENERA TION AND RE GENERA TION 329 



there is a sense of openness to the Lord, and of 
reception of life from Him, as in no other act. 
This is so with those who are in marriage from 
religion, and with an interior acknowledgment of 
the Lord. In such marriage there is a full ultimate 
of the marriage of the Lord and the church (A. E. 
984), and a fuller sense of union with Him than 
is possible otherwise. It comes down from within, 
and opens all the vessels of mind and body to the 
reception of life from the Lord. 

Interiorly this is called the marriage of good 
and truth ; for it is a marriage between the love 
of receiving wisdom from the Lord and the love 
of the goodness of that wisdom. A true man of 
the church is in love for the Lord's love, and for 
the wisdom that reveals that love. And a true 
woman of the church is stirred by the nobleness 
of that wisdom, and by a sense of the goodness 
to which it will lead in life. And when they unite 
in loving the wisdom and the goodness of it, and 
doing the good works which it teaches, they are a 
full recipient and embodiment of the Lord's love ; 



33° 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORPESPOXDEXCES. 



and He unites them to Himself, and Himself to 
them, filling them with the sense of life from Him. 
In such marriage, it is the state of the wisdom of 
love in the husband which arouses the love of the 
wife, and the love of the wife which makes it 
delightful to the husband, and incites to the attain- 
ment of more wisdom. Each has his enjoyment 
from the other, and each communicates that which 
is essential to the happiness of the other ; and in 
both is the sense that all that makes them happy 
is from the Lord, and that the life of the Lord is 
in it all. Such marriage love is therefore the very 
spring whence comes the growth of the church 
and of heaven in man, and the increase of the 
marriage between the Lord and the church. (C. L. 
65 ; A. E. 993.) 

This growth and increase have an outward em- 
bodiment in the multiplication of men; but in- 
wardly they consist in the increase of perceptions 
of wisdom and of joys in goodness. Perceptions 
of wisdom are spiritual sons, and joys in goodness 
are spiritual daughters. 



GENERATION AND REGENERATION 



33* 



In the begetting of sons, spiritual and natural, 
the masculine mind is in the perception of truth ; 
in the begetting of daughters, it is in the percep- 
tion of the goodness of that truth, which is made 
sensible to it by the love of the wife. The soul 
is from the father in both cases, and its sex 
depends upon the state of the father ; but in the 
one case his state is masculine, and in the other 
it is relatively feminine. It is masculine when he 
is in the attitude of perceiving and expressing new 
truth ; it is relatively feminine when he is in the 
perception of what is good. Swedenborg says, 
" I inquired, ' How is what is feminine produced 
from a male soul ? ' and I received for answer, that 
it was from intellectual good ; because this in its 
essence is truth ; for the understanding can think 
that this is good, thus that it is true that it 
is good. It is otherwise with the will ; this 
does not think what is good and true, but loves 
it and does it." (C. L. 220.) A daughter born of 
such perception — that "it is true that a thing is 
good" — when she hears things that are true and 



33 2 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



wise, perceives and feels the goodness of them, 
and thus is wholly feminine towards them. The 
church as a whole is feminine toward the Lord, 
and in that relation every member of it is femi- 
nine. In relation to one another every one is 
masculine when he is propagating new truth ; and 
every one is feminine when he is receiving such 
truth from another and perceiving the goodness of 
it. Sons thus begotten from the love of truth, 
have " the faculty of perceiving the things of 
wisdom," and are in the love of reaching out for 
true things that are beyond the reach of sense, 
and bringing them down to the apprehension ; and 
daughters love the good of the things of wisdom 
when thus brought down to affect the feelings. 
(See C. L. 168.) 

The temporary clothing of the communicated 
soul is from the husband, and for the sake of 
communication only. The permanent clothing is 
from the wife. As to that which is received and 
absorbed by her, she herself is the permanent 
clothing. The angels say that " the prolific things 



GENERATION AND REGENERATION. 



333 



imparted from the husbands are received univer- 
sally by the wives, and add themselves to their 
life ; and that thus the wives lead a life unani- 
mous, and successively more unanimous, with their 
husbands ; and that hence is effectively produced 
a union of souls and a conjunction of minds. 
They declared this to be because in what is pro- 
lific from the husband is his soul, and also his 
mind as to its interiors which are conjoined to 
the soul. They added that this was provided from 
creation, in order that the wisdom of the man, 
which constitutes his soul, may be appropriated 
to the wife, and that thus they may become, ac- 
cording to the Lord's words, one flesh." (C. L. 
127.) 

For the soul which is to make a separate human 
being, the mother furnishes a permanent clothing 
in the ovum, which passes back through the Fallo- 
pian tube to the womb, and there is nourished to 
its full development by means of the placenta. 
The children that are brought forth may be 
thought of as having the father's state of wis- 



334 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



dom as their life, clothed by the mother with 
her thought of the practical usefulness of it. 

We have thought of the seminal vesicles as 
answering to the use of clothing ideas in illustra- 
tive thoughts. The womb is the feminine correla- 
tive, answering to the clothing of the wisdom 
received, not with illustrative thought, but with 
thought from the circumstances of life in regard to 
its applications and usefulness, — thought which 
embodies it in a plan for usefulness, which is 
brought forth in useful work. It is in accordance 
with this that the animating fire or zeal of one's 
life is from the father ; and the ability of practi- 
cal application is from the mother. The clothing 
from the mother is the means by which the soul 
works. If wholly inadequate, it may wholly pre- 
vent its development and expression in this world, 
and modify it permanently ; but if of great power 
and ability, it may make the very most of even 
a little spiritual energy. 

In the quotation above from C. L. 172, it is said 
that in what is from the father " is his soul, and 



GENERA TION AND RE GENERA TION 



335 



also his mind as to its interiors which are con- 
joined to the soul." We are taught, also, that 
" the soul which is from the father is the man 
himself, and the body which is from the mother 
is not the man in itself but is from him. This 
is only his clothing, woven from such things as 
are in the natural world ; but the soul from such 
things as are in the spiritual world. Every man 
after death lays down the natural which he has 
taken from the mother, and retains the spiritual 
which is from the father, together with a certain 
covering about it from the purest things of nature." 
(T. C. R. 103.) 

This purest covering from nature must be added 
by the mother ; otherwise the seed of the father 
would alone produce permanent offspring. That 
it is essential to permanence and thus to propa- 
gation is shown in D. L. post., VIII. 

The child when born is nourished by milk from 
its mother's breasts ; and the milk is a correspond- 
ence of the instruction from a mother's love, by 
which a child is nurtured. There is also a real 



33 6 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 



communication with the mother's milk, not of 
thought, but of affection, which nourishes in the 
child its love of knowing, and other things of its 
natural disposition, so that it is common to say 
that a child imbibed this or that love or taste 
with its mother's milk. 

In regard, also, to the soul of the father not 
separately developed, but received by the wife, and 
added to her soul, there is a similar affection for 
nourishing it through the breasts. And there is 
an actual nourishing of the soul of the husband 
by the love of the wife imparted through her 
breasts. Her love thus adds itself to his life as 
the enjoyment and delight of it. " Their inti- 
mate union," Swedenborg says, "is like that of 
the soul and the heart ; the soul of the wife is 
the husband, and the heart of the husband is the 
wife ; the husband communicates his soul and con- 
joins it to his wife by love in act ; it is in his 
seed, and the wife receives it in her heart ; hence 
the two become one, and thus everything in the 
body of one regards its mutual in the other." 
(A. E. 1004.) 






GENERATION AND REGENERATION. 



337 



This is the very process of the increase of 
heavenly life, by which the two become a more 
and more full recipient of life from the Lord. 
The reception of wisdom from the Lord by the 
husband produces a love for its goodness in the 
wife, and her love makes it delightful to him. In 
the bodily union his state of wisdom is communi- 
cated to her, and her love for it comes back 
through the heart to him. Thus the members of 
generation are means of developing receptacles of 
the life of the Lord in the partners, and thus are 
means of regeneration ; and if used for this end 
they are holy and innocent, and full of the 
heavenly life for which they form receptacles. 

There are other aspects of the work of regen- 
eration, all of which have relation to natural gen- 
eration, and are illustrated by it. In the " Arcana 
Coelestia " we read as follows : — 

" Man knows nothing of how he is regenerated, 
and scarcely that he is regenerated ; but if he de- 
sires to know this, let him attend only to the ends 
which he proposes to himself, and which he rarely 



338 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 

discloses to any one ; if the ends are good, namely, 
that he cares more for his neighbor and the Lord 
than for himself, he is then in a state of regenera- 
tion ; but if the ends are to evil, namely, that he 
cares more for himself than for his neighbor and 
the Lord, let him know that he is in no state of 
regeneration. Man by the ends of his life is in 
the other life ; by ends of good, in heaven with 
angels, and by ends of evil, in hell with devils. 
Ends with man are nothing else than his loves ; 
for what a man loves, that he has for an end ; and 
inasmuch as ends are his loves, they are his inmost 
life. . . . Ends of good with man are in his rational, 
and these are what is called his rational as to good, 
or the good of the rational. By ends of good, or 
by good therein, the Lord disposes all things which 
are in the natural ; for tlie end is as the soul, and 
the natural is as the body of that soul. Such as 
the soul is, such is the body with which it is en- 
compassed ; thus, such as the rational is as to good, 
such is the natural with which it is invested. It 
is known that the soul of man has its beginning in 
the ovum of the mother [it being there first perma- 
nently clothed], and is afterwards perfected in her 
womb ; and is there encompassed with a tender 
body, and this of such a nature that by it the soul 
may be able to act suitably in the world into which 



GENERATION AND REGENERATION 



339 



it is born. The case is similar when man is born 
again, that is, when he is regenerated. The new 
soul which he then receives is the end of good, 
which has its beginning in the rational, at first as 
in an ovum there, and afterwards it is there per- 
fected as in a womb. The tender body with which 
this soul is encompassed, is the natural and the 
good therein, which becomes such as to act obedi- 
ently according to the ends of the soul. The truths 
therein are like fibres in the body ; for truths are 
formed from good. . . . Hence it is evident that an 
image of the reformation of man is exhibited in his 
formation in the womb ; and, if you will believe it, 
celestial good and spiritual truth, which are from 
the Lord, are also what forms him, and thus im- 
presses an ability to receive each of them succes- 
sively, and this in quantity and quality according as 
he, like a man, has respect to the ends of heaven, 
and not like a brute animal to the ends of the 
world." (n. 3570.) 

"The angels have life from good, and have form 
from truths, w T hich is the human form." (A. C. 
9043 ; see also T. C. R. 583.) 

The end of good has a form in the definite 
thought of what is good. The beginning of con- 
scious regeneration is in such definite thought with 



34° 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 



desire and determination. The clothing of this 
seed is by meditation upon it in regard to its 
application to the uses of life, and from truths 
which conduce to this application. And the birth 
is in the life. 

But this end of good, which is the beginning 
of new life, is from the Lord's love and is com- 
municated to man by the Word. The seed of 
the heavenly life is sown by the Son of Man. 
And this seed, or revelation of the Divine, con- 
tains the Divine love clothed successively in the 
several senses of the Word, and at last in the lit- 
eral sense. It is received by the church, and is suc- 
cessively unclothed by her — variously, of course — 
until the Divine love is perceived in it. This love 
becomes an end of good in those who perceive 
it and would live from it. The " ovum in the 
rational" which receives it, is from the remains 
implanted by the innocent angels who are most 
in love to the Lord in the earliest stages of in- 
fancy. "The natural and the good therein " which 
"afterwards encompasses it as with a body," is 






GENERA TION AND RE GENERA TION 



341 



from the later remains laid up in childhood and 
youth, and even in maturer life. From these it is 
nourished interiorly by goodness and truth relat- 
ing to the Lord and heaven and heavenly life, 
and exteriorly by goodness and truth relating to 
moral and civil life, until the man openly begins 
to live a good spiritual life. And afterwards he 
is further nourished and sustained by the affection 
and instructions of the church. 

This circle of life is thus described by Sweden- 
borg : — 

"When man is regenerated, the truths which 
must be of faith are insinuated by hearing and 
sight, and are implanted in the memory of his 
natural man ; from that memory they are brought 
into the thought which is of the understanding, 
and those which are loved become of the will ; and 
so far as they become of the will, they become of 
the life, for the will of man is his very life ; and so 
far as they become of his life, they become of his 
affection, thus of charity in the will and of faith in 
the understanding. Afterwards from that life, which 
is a life of charity and faith, he speaks and acts, — 
from charity which is of the will goes forth the 



342 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



speech of the mouth, and also the acts of the body, 
both by an intellectual way, thus by the way of faith. 
From these things it is plain that the circle of the 
regeneration of man is like the circle of his life in 
general ; and that it is similarly established in the 
will by influx from heaven from the Lord. Hence 
also it is evident that there are two states in man 
who is regenerated, the first when the truths of faith 
are being implanted, and conjoined to the good of 
charity, and the second when from the good of 
charity he speaks by means of the truths of faith, 
and acts according to them ; so that the first state 
is from the world through the natural man into the 
spiritual man, thus into heaven, and the second 
from heaven through the spiritual man into the 
natural, thus into the world. . . . This circle is the 
circle of man's regeneration, and hence is the circle 
of his spiritual life." (A. C. 10,057.) 

The subject is further illustrated by the repre- 
sentation of the altar of burnt-offering with its 
offerings and sacrifices ; which in all particulars 
has relation to purification from evils and falsi- 
ties, the reception of good and truth, and the 
conjunction of good from the Lord with truth ; 
thus to the processes of regeneration. 



GENERA TION AND REGENERA TION 



343 



Swedenborg says, — 

"The place where the door of the tent of meet- 
ing was, represented the marriage of Divine good 
with Divine truth ; for by the altar, which also was 
placed at the door of the tent, was represented the 
Lord as to Divine good, and by the tent of meet- 
ing was represented the Lord as to Divine truth. 
Hence by the place at the door of the tent was rep- 
resented the conjunction of good and truth, which 
conjunction is called the heavenly marriage." (A. C. 
10,001 ; see also 10,143, 10,053, 10,124.) 

" By burnt-offerings and sacrifices in general was 
represented purification from evils and falsities ; and 
since purification was represented, the implantation 
of good and truth from the Lord, and likewise their 
conjunction, was also represented; for when man 
is purified from evils and falsities, which is effected 
by their removal, then good and truth from the 
Lord flow in, and so far as good and truth in that 
state flow in, so far they are implanted, and so far 
conjoined; for the Lord is continually present with 
good and truth in every man, but he is not received 
except so far as evils and falsities are removed, thus 
so far as man is purified from them ; the conjunc- 
tion of good and truth is regeneration." (A. C. 
10,022.) 



344 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



" By the altar is also signified heaven and the 
church as to the reception of Divine good from the 
Lord there ; for it is the Divine of the Lord that 
makes heaven and the church, inasmuch as the 
Lord dwells there in His own, and not in the pro- 
prium of man. Hence also it is that by the altar 
is likewise signified the man himself in whom is 
heaven, or in whom is the church, thus in whom is 
the Lord ; and abstractly from person the altar de- 
notes the good itself which is from the Lord with 
the angels of heaven and with the men of the 
church." (A. C. 10,124.) 

It is on account of this representation by the 
altar of the conjunction of the Lord and the 
church, that the altar is called the Holy of Holies, 
" which signifies," we are told, "the celestial king- 
dom, where the Lord is present in the good of 
love. . . . That celestial good is the Holy of 
Holies, and spiritual good Holy, is because celes- 
tial good is the inmost good, thus also that good 
is the good of the inmost heaven ; but spiritual 
good is the good proceeding from it, and there- 
fore is the good of the middle heaven ; and this 
good is so far good, and therefore so far holy, as 



GENERATION AND REGENERATION. 



345 



it has in it celestial good ; for this flows into the 
other, and conceives it and produces it as a father 
a son. By celestial good is meant the good of 
love from the Lord to the Lord, and by spiritual 
good is meant the good of charity towards the 
neighbor from the Lord. The good itself of love 
to the Lord from the Lord is the Holy of Holies, 
because the Lord by it conjoins Himself immedi- 
ately ; but the good of charity towards the neigh- 
bor is Holy, because the Lord by it conjoins 
Himself mediately; and He so far conjoins Him- 
self as it has in it the good of love to the Lord." 
(A. C. 10,129.) 

Thus the altar of burnt-offering, and the wor- 
ship there, though situated in the court of the 
tabernacle and at the door of entrance, was the 
most holy thing of the representative worship 
because it represented the reception of life from 
the Lord in the ultimates of life, and the multipli- 
cation of good and true things in the church by 
that life. The coals from the altar were carried 
into the tabernacle, and laid in the censer upon 



346 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

the altar of incense, and the smoke of fragrant 
spices ascended from it, as the love of a faithful 
wife goes forth from her heart, and also the 
prayers and praises of a faithful church. 

To return again to the correspondence of these 
things with the heavens, we read, — 

" All the members dedicated to generation, in 
both sexes, especially the womb, correspond to so- 
cieties in the inmost or third heaven. The reason 
is that true marriage love is derived from the 
Lord's love for the church, and from the love of 
good and truth which love is the love of angels of 
the third heaven. Wherefore marriage love, which 
descends thence, like the love of that heaven, is 
innocence, which is the very esse of all good in the 
heavens. Hence embryos in the womb are in a 
state of peace, and infants after they are born are 
in a state of innocence, as also their mother in rela- 
tion to them. Since there is such correspondence of 
the genital members of both sexes, it is evident that 
they are holy from creation, and therefore dedicated 
solely to chaste and pure marriage love, and that 
they ought not to be profaned by unchaste and im- 
pure love of adultery ; by this man turns the heaven 
in himself into hell ; for as marriage love corre- 



GENERATION AND REGENERATION. 



347 



sponds to the love of the highest heaven, which is 
love to the Lord from the Lord, so the love of 
adultery corresponds to the love of the lowest hell. 
The love of marriage is so holy and heavenly be- 
cause it begins from the Lord Himself in the in- 
mosts of man, and according to order descends to 
the ultimates of the body, and thus fills the whole 
man with heavenly love, and induces upon him the 
form of the Divine love, which form is the form of 
heaven, and is the image of the Lord." (A. E. 

985.) 

"The angels of the inmost heaven are innocences. 
In the next * and the interior heavens there are also 
innocences, but not the same ; those innocences 
constitute as it were their inmost, or as it may be 
called their centre, like an axis or nucleus. Nor 
can any heaven subsist unless its centre, or inmost 
as it were, is innocence, and other things are like 
circumferences into which comes innocence from 
the centre ; for no one can be in heaven unless he 
has something of innocence. So also the inmost 
heaven communicates with the next by means of 
its centre, namely innocences, and so the inmost f 



*"In crelo intimiori et interiori." " InHmius" seems to mean 
" comparatively inmost," but not the positively inmost, 
f " Intimum per intimius cum interiori/' 



348 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



through the next with the interior. From this may- 
be understood the quality of the communication 
from the inmosts and from the Lord according to 
the order instituted by the Lord." 

" It is the inmost heaven through which the 
Lord insinuates marriage love ; the beginning or 
origin of this is from the inmost heaven, also 
through the centre of the lower heavens. From 
this also is parental love ; for the celestial angels 
of the inmost heaven so love infants, much more 
than fathers or mothers. Indeed they are present 
with infants and take care of them ; and, as has 
been told me, they are present in their mother's 
womb, and take care of them that they may be 
nourished; thus they have charge over those who 
are with child." (S. D. 1200, 1201.) 

" They who most tenderly love infants, so that 
they be only foetuses or infants, are as most tender 
mothers, so that they can scarcely live unless they 
are in a state where the tender love of infants 
reigns. These constitute the province in the situ- 
ation of the testicles and organs thence depending; 
and, in woman, the neck of the womb, and the 
womb, with the ovaries and the things annexed. 
They who are in this province live in the sweetest, 
most delightful, and happy life, such as cannot be 
described ; only its state is gentleness and sweet- 



GENERA TION AND REGENERA TION 349 



ness. Their province is between the loins (inter 
lumbos)" (S. D. 3152.) 

They are innocent because innocence consists in 
the acknowledgment from the heart that we are 
nothing, and that the Lord is all ; and these prov- 
inces are more than others in the perception that 
all of life is from the Lord ; and in the love of 
receiving life sensitively from Him, and communi- 
cating it to others. From them comes the sense 
of new life from the Lord to all the heavens, 
and thus also the sense of conjunction with Him. 
And, as will be seen presently, they also are the 
means of multiplying recipients of His life. 

It would seem that those who are in the prov- 
ince of the testicles are primarily in the love of 
receiving sensitively and imparting the Lord's life 
in forms of wisdom, and they who are in the 
province of the ovaries and the womb are prima- 
rily in love for protecting and defending the things 
of wisdom, and showing the goodness of them. 
(See C. L. 127.) 

That the organs of both sexes have their corre- 



35° 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



spondence with societies in heaven, and yet the 
heaven is one man, may perhaps be illustrated by 
the following teaching : — 

" There are married partners there who are in 
such marriage love that the two can be one flesh, 
and also are one when they will, and thus they ap- 
pear as one man. I have seen them and talked 
with them, and they said that they have one life, 
and that they are like the life of good in truth, and 
the life of truth in good, and that they are like the 
pairs in man, namely, like the two hemispheres of 
the brain covered with one membrane, the two 
chambers of the heart within a common covering, 
and likewise the two lobes of the lungs ; which, 
although they are two, still are one as to life, and 
the exercises of life, which are uses." (A. E. 1004.) 

As this is the most perfect form of man, and 
the whole heaven is more full and perfect than 
any individual in it, we may conclude that the 
heavens are such a one, and that the intercom- 
munication is constant (compare A. E. 992) ; and 
we may think of the uses and the joys of mar- 
riage love as affecting the whole heaven through 
these provinces, as in such a married pair. 



GENERATION AND REGENERATION. 



35 1 



In them is chiefly the innocence of the heavens 
(A. E. 996), or the sense that all of life even to 
ultimates is from the Lord alone. There is also 
the sense of the reception of life from the Lord 
in states of wisdom, and of joy in the goodness 
which wisdom teaches, and in the delight of the 
union of wisdom and goodness, in which is the 
fullest reception of the Lord. 

The male provinces are in the actual reception 
of wisdom from the Lord to increase the life of 
the heavens ; and the female, in love for the good- 
ness of this wisdom, and in the desire to bring 
it to full fruition.* 

There are in these provinces the three degrees 
of communication, as in individuals, answering to 
the several planes of life in the heavens. In the 
inmosts are those who have the inmost sense of 
the reception of wisdom and love from the Lord, 
and of the oneness of them ; in the outer parts 



* Spiritual prolification is described in A. E. 991; H. H. 382; 
C. L. 52. 



35 2 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



are those who are in intelligence concerning these 
things of wisdom and love, and the marriage of 
them in the Lord and in men. And in the out- 
most are those who are in natural fondness for 
infants and for professions and forms of marriage 
love (S. D. 3704) ; and some there are with very 
little spiritual life, who yet serve as guards and 
for protection. (S. D. 3390; see also on circum- 
cision, A. C. 4462.) 

Through these provinces the whole heaven, and 
every individual in the heavens, are affected with 
the delight of the union of love and wisdom 
from the Lord ; and this delight extends through 
all the forms of marriage love. But everywhere 
the chief influence received is that of innocence, — 
of the sense that life is from the Lord alone, and 
also every living form of love and wisdom ; and 
from this comes the delight in new births of love 
and wisdom from the Lord for the increase of the 
life of the heavens. 

To the earths also the influence of these prov- 
inces descends for the uses of generation and 



GENERA TION AND REG EN ERA TION 



353 



of regeneration ; for without them there would be 
upon the earth neither love nor power for propa- 
gating either the race or the truth. The life of 
the heavens and of every angel in it, also of every 
man that is born, is the Lord's love for man. 
From this love, through the Divine wisdom, all 
things are created. The Divine wisdom from the 
Divine love has in view an Infinite heaven, and 
provides means for creating it. In the continual 
increase of the heavens, it operates through the 
heavens that already exist, expanding and develop- 
ing them forever towards the Infinite ideal. The 
angels that are in these provinces of the heavens 
receive the Lord's love and wisdom for the in- 
crease of the heavens most fully. They also per- 
ceive in the states of all the heavens their need 
and desire for increase and development, and not 
only inspire into them the love and wisdom that 
they are capable of receiving, but inspire the same 
into the souls of men on earth, to form new 
recipients. And the inspiration from the Lord 
through these provinces is the very desire and the 



354 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



ability to propagate the soul, and the wisdom 
which is the substance of the soul. In a discus- 
sion in the spiritual world concerning the origin 
of marriage love and, its ability, a wise African 
said : " You Christians deduce marriage power or 
ability from various causes rational and natural ; 
but we Africans deduce it from the state of man's 
conjunction with the God of the universe. This 
state we call the state of religion, but you call it 
the state of the church ; for when the love is de- 
rived from that state, and is stable and permanent, 
it must needs produce its own power, which re- 
sembles it, and thus also is stable and permanent. 
True marriage love is known only by those few 
who live near to God ; consequently the ability of 
that love is known to no others. This ability is 
described by the angels of heaven as the delight 
of a perpetual spring." (C. L. 113.) 

Through them descends the desire and ability 
of propagation to man, and is received by him 
according to the state of his life, purely or per- 
versely. But inmostly in it there is ever the life 



GENERATION AND REGENERATION. 



355 



of the Lord, and the love and wisdom of the 
inmost heaven. It is not possible for a soul to 
live and be born but from this love and wisdom 
for the development of the heavens ; and thus it 
is not possible for one to be born without capacity 
for doing a use in the heavens, and making them 
a more perfect man. 

" It is provided by the Lord," Swedenborg says 
(E. U. 9), "that whensoever there is a deficiency 
in any place as to the quality or quantity of corre- 
spondence, a supply be instantly made from another 
earth, to fill up the deficiency, so that the propor- 
tion may be preserved, and thus heaven be kept 
in due consistence." This may refer only to the 
transfer of men from the natural world to the 
spiritual ; but I think it refers also to the produc- 
tion of such as are needed. The sense of need 
would affect the heaven. In every society there 
must be a sense of delightful uses to be done, 
which yet they are not able to do, and a desire 
that they should be done, and to love and support 
those who can do them. And this is itself a love 



356 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



of propagating, which can only be effective through 
those who are in the function of prolification, and 
are operating upon man ; and it is like the supply 
of pure fluids furnished to those provinces from 
the brains and the gen.eral circulation for the sake 
of their use. 

The perverseness of the externals through which 
these heavenly things of the soul come down, in- 
creases the difficulty of developing and expressing 
them, but does not destroy them. Even an evil 
man has in him the inmost of the soul in which 
the Lord dwells immediately, also the celestial 
and spiritual planes of the mind, all of which are 
beyond his reach, and therefore unperverted. If 
it were not for these, there would be no propaga- 
tion of his soul. The angels of these provinces 
arouse to activity both the internals and the ex- 
ternals, though the man is wholly unconscious of 
the heavenly possibilities of the internals, and per- 
ceives only the perverse possibilities of the ex- 
ternals. They also operate upon the concealed 
processes of the interiors of the body, of which 



GENERATION AND REGENERATION. 



357 



the man knows nothing, that they may act accord- 
ing to the order of right development. " Many 
nerves of the cerebellum/' Swedenborg says, "come 
together in the region of the loins, for the sake 
of propagation. . . . For propagation is exempt in 
almost all respects from the voluntary things of 
man." (S. D. 3862.) 

And during and after conception, they are pres- 
ent with the new soul in the ovum and through 
all its life in the womb, to remove from it evil 
influences, as far as possible, and to nurture in it 
all the possibilities of good ; that there may never 
be lacking in the new being the power, to see and 
to love and to do the uses for the sake of which 
he is created, and the love of which is his inmost 
life from the Lord. 

As in a man the soul acts upon the body, and 
the body reacts of itself, with a degree of inde- 
pendence — and this because the body lives from 
the general influx of the heavens — so in the womb 
the body must be formed by this general influx 
of the heavens, reacting to the life which is in 



358 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



the soul from the Lord. The angels of the male 
organs of the heavens are with the father cooperat- 
ing in the propagation of the interior receptacles 
of life of which he knows nothing, and in the 
clothing of these spiritual forms so that they may 
be communicated to the wife. The angels of the 
female organs are with the mother, cooperating 
with her in receiving these spiritual forms, and in 
giving them a permanent clothing. And through 
the angels of the womb the whole heaven is pres- 
ent, forming the body of the child in response to 
and accord with the life from the Lord in the 
soul ; and this in such a manner that the influence 
of every province of the heavens forms the corre- 
sponding organ of the body ; and thus, being 
formed in response to the impulses of life from 
the soul, it continues to react to them afterwards. 
When the time of regeneration arrives, and 
"the end of good," which Swedenborg says is the 
life of the spiritual man, comes to the rational per- 
ception, the capacity for perceiving it is from the 
very love of use which from the Lord through 



GENERATION AND REGENERATION. 



359 



the angels formed from the beginning those facul- 
ties which he now first exercises consciously. And 
the angels who have attended him in the womb 
have had perception of this, and labored to pro- 
vide for the right development of his organs of 
thought and sense and action so that he might 
have all the means of receiving the truth and 
bringing it forth in good life. 
Swedenborg says, — 

"I have spoken with angels, concerning the pro- 
gression of truth to good, thus of faith to charity : 
that there is joy with the angels when a child or 
a boy on earth from affection learns and receives 
truths, thus when truths become knowledge, and 
that there is still greater joy, when from knowl- 
edge they become of the understanding — then 
there is joy with the angels of the Lord's spiritual 
kingdom ; and still greater joy w T hen from the un- 
derstanding they become of the will — then there 
is joy with the angels of the Lord's celestial king- 
dom ; and when from the will they become of the 
act, then there is joy with the angels of the three 
heavens. How great are the joy and the enjoy- 
ments in that progression, cannot be described, be- 



360 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 

cause it is ineffable ; for thus a man enters more 
and more into heaven, and becomes a heaven in the 
least form. I have perceived this, in speaking with 
the angels, from the progression of the enjoyments 
of marriage love even to the ultimate effect by 
which man is propagated ; such is the progression 
of the conjunction with heaven, that is, with the 
Lord; and such is the new creation of man, and the 
formation of heaven, or of an angel, in him ; for 
heaven is the form of the Divine truth thus pro- 
gressing ; from this a man becomes love, and in no 
other way is the marriage of good and truth formed 
in him." (S. D. 601 1.) 

In regeneration the good seed is from the wis- 
dom of the Divine love, successively clothed in 
the several senses of the Word, even to its ulti- 
mate precepts (A. E. 1066, 1072). The reception 
and successive unclothing is by the natural and 
the rational thought of man, even until the love 
within is perceived. The development is through 
the gathering and arrangement of truths which 
are the means of bringing the good end to pass, 
and the new birth is the bringing forth of the 
end in words and works. In every step of this 



GENERA TION AND RE GENERA TION 3 6 1 

work the influence of the angels of these prov- 
inces, and their love for the reception of the 
Lord's love and wisdom, is the nurturing influ- 
ence which makes the work possible. And in 
the completed work of regeneration their inno- 
cence finds its delight in the state of the man 
who has learned the truth which is the very 
receptacle of innocence, that man has nothing of 
goodness and truth of his own, but all is from 
the Lord.* 

In thinking of the Word as the successive 
clothing of the Divine wisdom by which regener- 
ation is effected, and the heavens are multiplied, 
it appears to be true that the states of the 



* In A. C. 5056, S. D. 875, E. U. 79, we read of one who was 
intensely eager to enter heaven, and when prepared was in the 
province of the seminal vesicles. He was of the chastising spirits 
from the planet of Jupiter, was in the love of truth, acknowledged 
himself to be vile in himself, and was eager to be admitted into a 
better state and better uses. Apparently he was in such a stage of 
regeneration that he was ready to receive with benefit and delight 
the influence of those who are in the love of the good things which 
wisdom teaches, and to mature under their influence a fuller heavenly 
life. 



362 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

church in which this clothing was effected were 
masculine as to their function, and the states of 
the church in which the unclothing is or will be 
successively effected, are relatively feminine ; or, 
in other words, that the ages down to the time 
of the coming of the Lord, were relatively mas- 
culine, and those since His coming are feminine. 

We may even go further than this, and say that 
the giving of the Word in its successive cloth- 
ing from inmost to outmost was from the mascu- 
line in the Divine, and the opening of the inner 
meanings of the Word and manifesting the good- 
ness of them was from the feminine in the Divine ; 
for, as will be seen presentlv, the Divine Human 
is feminine relatively to the inmost Divine. 

It was by the unfolding of the real meaning 
of the Word, and bringing forth the good of it in 
His human life, that the Divine marriage was 
accomplished in the Lord. For "the union of 
the Divine Essence with the Human, and of the 
Human with the Divine," we are taught, "is the 
Divine marriage of good with truth, and of truth 



GENERA TION AND REGENERA TION 363 

with good, from which is the heavenly marriage." 
(A. C. 2803.) 

"The Divine marriage of the Lord is not be- 
tween Divine good and Divine truth in His Divine 
Human, but between the good of the Divine Hu- 
man and the Divine Itself, that is, between the 
Father and the Son ; for the Divine good of the 
Lord's Divine Human is what is called in the Word 
the Son, of God, and the Divine Itself the Father." 
(A. C. 3952.) 

" From the Divine marriage, which is the union 
of the Father and the Son, or of the Divine Itself 
of the Lord with the Divine Human, comes the 
heavenly marriage. The heavenly marriage is what 
is called the kingdom of the Lord, and also heaven, 
and this because it exists from the Divine marriage, 
which is the Lord." (A. C. 3960.) 

The church which would enter into this heaven- 
ly marriage must learn from Him the truth of 
heavenly life, which is the truth of His own hu- 
man life, and herself live it, and become a form of 
the good of it ; and so far as she does this, the 
Lord unites Himself with her, and her with Him- 
self ; for He says : "As the Father hath loved me, 



364 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

so have I loved you; continue ye in my love." 
The fruits of this marriage of the Lord and the 
church will be truths rationally seen and naturally 
expressed ; and good works, heavenly in their 
spirit, natural in their embodiment. The first 
fruits of it were in the first Christian acknowl- 
edgment of the Lord as the one God, Who ful- 
filled the Scriptures and established a heavenly 
kingdom. And the bringing forth of this doc- 
trine the Lord compared to the pains of birth : 
"A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow 
because her hour is come ; but as soon as she is 
delivered of the child, she remembereth no more 
her anguish, for joy that a man is born into the 
world. And ye now therefore have sorrow ; but I 
will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, 
and your joy no man taketh from you." 

The birth of the doctrines of the New Church 
is also likened in the Apocalypse to the birth of 
a man-child from a woman clothed with the sun, 
and having the moon under her feet. These doc- 
trines were derived from the Scriptures interiorly 



GENERA TION AND RE GENERA TION 



365 



and truly understood, and the birth of them is a 
type of the continual births of wisdom and good- 
ness with which the church will be multiplied 
and perfected, as she receives into herself the 
interior things of the Scriptures, and from them 
receives the Lord's life and adds it to her own 
life. 

The Lord began the unfolding of the real mean- 
ing of the Word in His teaching ; in His own 
thought and life there was a perfect unfolding of 
it ; and He has given the means of a perfect un- 
folding now to the New Church. The very life of 
the New Church will come from her opening the 
inner meanings of the Word, even till the love 
and wisdom of the Lord Himself are perceived 
in it, and she receives these into her heart, and 
adds them to her life. The marriage of the Lord 
and the church is thus effected by means of the 
opening and living by her of the inner meanings 
of the Word. And it is possible only so far as 
the church is in the acknowledgment of the 
Divine Human of the Lord ; for with no other 



3 66 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



idea of Him is conjunction possible, and no other 
opens the Divine Love and Wisdom in the Word, 
the union of which constitutes this heavenly mar- 
riage. Therefore, also, we are taught that no true 
marriage love is possible except with those who 
are in the acknowledgment of the Divine Human 
of the Lord ; for only thus can the love and wis- 
dom be received, the union of which is the origin 
and essence of marriage love. (C. L. 70; A. E. 

995-) 

Some confirmation of this view of the Word, 
and of the churches before and after the coming 
of the Lord, may be had from these considera- 
tions : The age of the Race when the Lord came, 
answers to the time of youth, when the desire 
for marriage begins. (See A. E. 641.) Sweden- 
borg also says of the Word : — 

" Since the members of generation in each sex 
correspond to societies of the third heaven, and the 
love of a married pair to the love of good and truth, 
therefore also those members and that love corre- 
spond to the Word. The reason is that the Word 
is Divine Truth united to Divine Good proceeding 



GENERATION AND REGENERATION. 



367 



from the Lord ; hence it is that the Lord is called 
the Word. From this also there is in every part of 
the Word the marriage of good and truth, or the 
heavenly marriage." (A. E. 985.) 

Besides the marriage in every part of the Word, 
there appears to be a marriage between the Old 
and the New Testaments. In the Old Testament 
we have the Truth from God descending and 
clothing itself successively even to ultimates. In 
the New Testament we have the beginnings of 
the unfolding of this truth, and the explanation 
of the real goodness in it, at first on the natural 
plane. And then in the Apocalypse we have a 
prediction of the future unfolding of the same 
Scriptures for the purification of the church and 
the establishment of a New Church which shall 
be the Bride, the Lamb's Wife. 

The Lord's kingdom includes both heaven and 
the church; and "the Word is the medium of 
conjunction" (C. L. 128) between the Lord and 
the whole. When man reads the Word in its 
ultimate, the literal sense, the heavens succes- 



368 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

sively evolve instantaneously their several senses, 
even to the inmost in which the Love and Wis- 
dom of the Lord are most distinctly perceived. 
(T. C. R. 234-239.) There is thus a conjunction 
of the Lord with His whole Kingdom, through 
the letter of the Word. And while this is the 
fullest reception of the Lord and conjunction 
with Him, in every individual who reads and 
looks to the Lord and lives according to His 
precepts there is in his degree a similar unfold- 
ing of the interiors of the Word, by his natural 
thought, his spiritual thought, and his reception 
of the Lord's love into his soul, where it becomes 
new ends of good life. 

And so far as one is thus conjoined to the 
Lord, from this heavenly marriage descends the 
love of the marriage of good and truth, and thus 
a heavenly marriage love, into all the degrees of 
his thought and feeling and life. It is a love 
which none can have " but those who go to the 
Lord, and love the truths of the church, and 
practise its goods " (C. L. 70) ; because no others 



GENERA TION AND RE GENERA TION 



369 



can receive from Him the sense of His merciful 

saving love, and the love of the truth of heavenly 

life, which are united in the heavenly marriage. 

Of such marriage love Swedenborg says: — 

" It is in its first essence love to the Lord from 
the Lord, and hence also it is innocence ; therefore 
also marriage love is peace, such as the angels have 
in heaven ; for as innocence is the very esse of all 
good, so peace is the very esse of all enjoyment of 
good, consequently it is the very esse of all joy be- 
tween the married two. Now because all joy is of 
love, and marriage love is the fundamental love of 
all the loves of heaven, therefore peace itself resides 
principally in marriage love. Peace is the blessed- 
ness of heart and soul arising from the conjunc- 
tion of the Lord with heaven and the church ; thus 
also from the conjunction of good and truth, when 
all strife and combat of what is evil and false with 
what is good and true cease. . . . And because 
marriage love descends from those conjunctions, 
therefore also all the enjoyment of that love de- 
scends and has its essence from heavenly peace." 
(A. E. 997.) 



THE BRAIN. 



T 



HE form of man at first conception was rep- 
resented to Swedenborg by the angels as — 



"a most minute image of a brain, with a deli- 
cate delineation of a face in front, without any 
appendage. This first form was, in the upper pro- 
tuberant part, a collection of contiguous globules 
or spherules, and each spherule was composed of 
others still more minute, and each of these in like 
manner of the most minute of all : thus it was of 
three degrees. . . . The angels said that the two 
inner degrees, which were in the order and form of 
heaven, were receptacles of love and wisdom from 
the Lord ; and that the exterior degree, which was 
in opposition to the order and form of heaven, was 
the receptacle of infernal love and insanity ; because 
man by hereditary degeneracy is born into evils of 
every kind, and these evils reside in the outmosts 
there; and this degeneracy is not removed unless 
the higher degrees are opened, which, as was said, 
are the receptacles of love and wisdom from the 
Lcrd. And because love and wisdom are man him- 

370 



THE BRAIN. ^ 1 



self, for love and wisdom in their essence are the 
Lord, and as this first form of man is a receptacle 
of them, it follows that there is in this first form a 
continual effort towards the human form, which also 
it successively assumes." (D. L. W. 432.) 

Of the development of this form we read fur- 
ther as follows : — 

"All things in man relate to the will and the 
understanding, and the understanding is a recepta- 
cle of the Divine Truth, and the will of the Divine 
Good. Therefore the human mind, w r hich consists 
of those two principles, is nothing else than a form 
of the Divine Truth and the Divine Good spirit- 
ually and naturally organized. The human brain 
is that form ; and because the whole man depends 
upon his mind, all things in his body are appen- 
dages which are actuated and live from those two 
principles." (T. C. R. 224.) 

"Man's life in its beginnings is in the brain, and 
in its derivatives in the body." (D. L. W. 365.) 

"The will and the understanding are called re- 
ceptacles because the will is not a spiritual abstrac- 
tion, but it is a substantial thing, formed for the 
reception of love from the Lord ; neither is the un- 
derstanding a spiritual abstraction, but a substan- 



372 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



tial thing formed for the reception of wisdom from 
the Lord. They actually exist. Although they 
are concealed from sight, yet they are within the 
substances which compose the cortex of the cere- 
brum, and also are scattered in the medullary sub- 
stance of the cerebrum, especially in the corpora 
striata, also within in the medullary substance of 
the cerebellum, and in the spinal medulla, of which 
they compose the central portion. There are there- 
fore not two receptacles, but innumerable, and every 
one twinned, and also in three degrees. . . . They 
are the beginnings and heads of all the fibres by 
which the whole body is woven. From the fibres 
put forth from them are formed all the organs of 
sense and motion, for they are their beginnings and 
ends. . . . Those receptacles in infants are small 
and tender; they afterwards increase and are per- 
fected according to the knowledge and the affec- 
tion for it. They are sound according to the intelli- 
gence and the love of uses ; they soften according 
to the innocence and love to the Lord, and are 
solidified and hardened by the opposites. Their 
changes of state are affections, their variations of 
form are thoughts ; the existence and permanence 
of these is the memory, and the reproduction is 
recollection. Both taken together are the human 
mind." (D. W. post. V.) 






THE BRAIN. 



373 



" From the cortical substances proceed little 
fibres, the first of which are invisible, and are after- 
wards bundled together, of which is produced the 
medullary substance of the whole cerebrum, cere- 
bellum, and medulla oblongata. From this medul- 
lary substance are put forth visible fibres, which 
united are called nerves, by which the cerebrum, 
cerebellum, and spinal medulla form the whole 
body and all things in it ; and therefore it is that all 
things of the body are ruled by the brains. From 
this it is evident that the will and understanding, 
which in one word are called the mind, and there- 
fore also intelligence and wisdom, reside in the 
brains, and are there in their first forms ; and that 
the organs which are formed to receive sensations 
and to perform motions are derivations from them, 
altogether like streams from their fountains ; . . . 
and that those derivations are such that the brains 
are everywhere present, almost as the sun is pres- 
ent by its heat and light in all parts of the earth. 
Hence it follows that the whole body, and all things 
in it, are forms under the observation, guidance, 
and control of the mind, which is in the brain, and 
so constructed in dependence upon it that the part 
in which the mind is not present, or to which it 
does not give its own life, is not a part of the life 
of the man." (A. E. 775.) 



374 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 



The fibres gather to themselves and animate the 
grosser materials contained in the blood; and in 
order that these may be conveyed wherever they 
are wanted, and so may be always at hand, the 
little blood-vessels are the first things formed in 
the body, and from them the heart to superintend 
their helpful service. (See D. L. W. 370, 400.) 

We have become familiar with the idea that 
"the Lord does not operate from first principles 
through mediates intc ultimates ; but from first 
principles through ultimates, and so into medi- 
ates." (A. E. 1086, also 1087; D. W. post. xii. 5 
end.) This is true o f the creation, in that the 
heavens were not made first, and through them 
the earths ; but the earths were made by means 
of atmospheres from the sun of heaven, and upon 
the earths the successive creations natural and 
spiritual were built up. At the same time it is 
true that when the heavens were formed, they 
cooperated in producing further developments up- 
on the earths. Similar things are true also of 
the Word, of which we read: — "The Lord flows 



THE BRAIN. 375 



in from first principles through ultimates ; thus 
from Himself into the natural sense of the Word, 
and calls out or evolves from thence its spiritual 
and celestial sense ; and thus illustrating, He 
teaches and leads the angels." (S. S. post. 18.) 
And yet it is true that when man reads the Word 
the angels who are associated w T ith him understand 
far more of its interior meaning than he does, and 
that their influence tends to enlighten and expand 
his understanding ; and thus the doctrines by 
which the interiors of the Word are opened, are 
said to have descended from God out of heaven. 
And so it is in the formation of the body by 
the brains. They do not first form the heart and 
lungs and other viscera, and then extend the 
blood-vessels to the skin ; but they send their 
fibres directly to the skin, and there form the be- 
ginnings of arteries and veins, which presently 
come together to form the heart. And then the 
heart and the arteries and veins cooperate with 
the fibres in the formation of all the other viscera 
and memberSo 



376 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES, 

We have already spoken about the innumerable 
cells, or beginnings of the fibres, "which compose 
the cortex of the cerebrum, and also are scattered 
in the medullary substance of the cerebrum, es- 
pecially in the corpora striata, also within in the 
medullary substance of the cerebellum, and in the 
spinal medulla, of which they compose the central 
portion." There are also small collections of these 
cells in nervous ganglia in other parts of the body; 
as in the cardiac plexus, which has immediate con- 
trol of the movements of the heart and lungs ; 
the solar plexus, which presides over the organs 
of digestion ; the sympathetic nerve with its gan- 
glia, connecting the functions of all the viscera. 
In the spinal medulla there are enlargements 
caused by special groups of cells having charge 
of particular organs and members ; the lowest, or 
sacral ganglia, preside over the organs of genera- 
tion ; the lumbar, over the motions of the legs ; 
the dorsal, over the motions of the arms. Cells 
are origins of fibres ; and wherever there are cells, 
there are origins of movements or operations by 



THE BRAIN. 



377 



means of the fibres. The acts of these ganglia 
are not determined by our voluntary effort, nor 
are they the result of conscious sensations ; 
though the sensations that cause them may also 
come to consciousness, and the acts of the ganglia 
may to some extent be controlled by voluntary 
effort. For example, if our hand accidentally 
touches a hot iron, it is instantly twitched away ; 
and not till afterwards do we become conscious 
of the pain. If the hand had to wait for this 
consciousness and the voluntary movement of the 
muscles, it would be badly burned. It has com- 
parative safety through the nearness and the 
promptness of the spinal ganglia which are in 
immediate charge. Yet, after the sensation is 
felt, we may, if we will, hold the hand to the 
burning iron, notwithstanding the effort of the 
ganglia to withdraw it — the larger brain exercis- 
ing its authority over its subordinates. 
Of these ganglia Swedenborg says : — 

" There are many centres and bases in each 
heaven ; by them there is immediate communica- 



378 



PHYSIOL O GICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 



tion among the heavens, and with God the Messiah. 
They are in a most tranquil state, and cannot be 
compared more aptly than to the ganglia of the 
human body, and the nodes in the brain, into which 
flow innumerable fibres, and are there as it were 
formed anew, and so the things which are around 
are disposed according to the ends in the begin- 
nings, and thus all these in most perfect order and 
form, by God the Messiah alone." (S. D. 305.) 

"From the series of fibres in the body it may be 
seen how it is in the lowest heaven ; for there are 
incomprehensible fascicles, as those that are about 
the heart, and those in lower regions, where all con- 
join themselves wonderfully. One fibre flows into 
another, and also weaves itself with others in a 
wonderful way ; it flows in and out, and blends 
itself with others, and again into others, also into 
ganglia, where they enter into other combinations, 
and flow out thence to their functions. How these 
things are done no one can comprehend ; they are 
disposed according to the heavenly form. Such 
are the cardiac plexus, the hepatic, and other plex- 
uses, and special plexuses in every viscus." (S. D. 

5780.) 

These that have been described are the sim- 
plest ganglia, having immediate relation to the 



THE BRAIN. 



379 



extremes of the body. Another set, larger and 
more comprehensive, combine the sensations of 
the lower body with those of the head, especially 
those received through the eyes, and direct the 
motions of the body accordingly. These are four 
small bodies at the base of the brain, called the 
corpora quadragemina ; with a fifth, closely asso- 
ciated with them, called the pineal gland, which 
exercises some control over the secretions of the 
brain. It is by virtue of these bodies that we 
can walk over a rough path, even when the mind 
is so occupied as to pay no attention to the way. 
Many operations of the hands and of other parts 
of the body are similarly controlled by them, 
without any conscious effort of the mind. 

Lying near these, and more important than 
any other subordinate ganglion, is the medulla 
oblongata ; a body which serves as the lieutenant 
of the cerebellum, in controlling the vital func- 
tions of the body — the beating of the heart; the 
circulation through arteries, capillaries, and veins ; 
the operations of all the glands of the body ; the 



3 8o 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



respiration, so far as it is involuntary ; and even 
the processes of eating, swallowing, crying, and 
speaking, so far as these also are involuntary. 
It also combines the fibres of the cerebrum, which 
are the instruments of conscious sensation and 
voluntary action, with those of the cerebellum, 
which keep the unconscious life informed of the 
state of every point in its kingdom, and distrib- 
ute its commands accordingly. Both cerebrum 
and cerebellum may be wanting ; if this medulla, 
with its group of cells, be sound, these vital func- 
tions will be attended to as long as its powers 
suffice. Its animating power is small ; but it 
holds the reins of all the vital functions of the 
body, and will guide them safely as long as the 
life holds out. 

The great variety of uses performed by the 
fibres from a single centre has its correspond- 
ence in the arrangement of the heavens, and is 
thus illustrated by Swedenborg : — 

" There came a company of spirits who said that 
they were dissimilar ; and because this seemed to 



THE BRAIN. 381 



me impossible, namely, that there should be a so- 
ciety of dissimilars in the other life, I therefore 
spoke with them about it, saying that if a common 
cause moved them in one direction, they still might 
be consociatecl, because all would thus have one end. 
They said that they are such that all speak differ- 
ently, and yet think alike. ... It was perceived 
that they have relation to the isthmus in the brain, 
which is between the cerebrum and the cerebellum, 
through which the fibres pass, and are thence dis- 
tributed variously, and wherever they go they act 
diversely in externals. Also that they have relation 
to the ganglia in the body, into which a nerve flows, 
and then is separated into many fibres, some of 
which go one way and some another, and act dis- 
similarly in ultimates, but still from one principle ; 
so that in ultimates there is dissimilarity in appear- 
ance, although there is similarity as to end. It is 
also known that one force acting in the extremi- 
ties may be greatly varied, according to the form 
there. Ends are likewise represented by the begin- 
nings from which are the fibres, such as are in the 
brain. Thoughts thence are represented by the 
fibres from those beginnings, and actions by the 
nerves which are from the fibres." (A. C. 5189. 
Nearly the same is in n. 4051.) 



382 



PHYSIOL O GICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



Two other pairs of brain-masses lie under the 
hemispheres of the cerebrum, and are closely asso- 
ciated with it, called the optic thalami and the 
corpora striata. The nerves of sense that proceed 
from the cerebrum pass through the optic thai- 
ami ; and the nerves of motion pass through the 
corpora striata. The cerebrum is the organ of the 
conscious efforts of the mind. It desires to see ; 
and its desire puts forth the nerve fibres that form 
the eye, and in the eye receive impressions from 
the light, and return these impressions to the 
brain where the reflecting mind resides. But 
this conscious effort can be directed to only one 
thing at a time, — to observe, for instance, the 
difference between black and white, or to distin- 
guish the form of a letter ; and, if no impression 
could be received except by this conscious atten- 
tion, we never could learn to read ; the whole 
power would be spent upon ever-repeated efforts 
to make the simplest distinctions. The mind, 
therefore, forms for itself a depository for the 
impressions already received, in the optic thai- 



THE BRAIN. 



3*3 



ami, which, after a few repetitions, recognize the 
familiar impressions without the effort or even 
the consciousness of the cerebrum, and combine 
them, and communicate the result to the cere- 
brum. Thus letter after letter, and word after 
word, are added to their stores of sense-knowl- 
edge, and the conscious effort is left free to 
attend to the meaning of the pages. 

In like manner the mind desires to do some- 
thing, and stretches out nerve fibres charged with 
this desire, and by them weaves the muscles and 
the bones of the arms and the hands. And then, 
according to the circumstances and opportunities 
of doing, it teaches the fingers to move, to grasp 
a needle, to take a stitch, or to touch the key of a 
piano. And if every motion must needs proceed 
from the direct effort and intention of the mind, 
the very simplest movements are all that would 
ever be effected ; and therefore the mind forms 
for itself lieutenants, who shall be associated with 
it and cooperate in every effort, perhaps even 
itself doing the work under direction, and which, 



384 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

after a few attempts, shall be able to direct all 
familiar motions without special charge from the 
conscious thought. The corpora striata, so called 
from their alternate layers of cellular and fibrous 
tissue, are such a lieutenant. They make the 
familiar stitches, strike the familiar chords and 
runs, write the letters, and even spell the words ; 
and the convolutions of the cerebrum, after teach- 
ing them to look after these things, are free to 
attend to the use and beauty of the work, the 
feeling of the music, the sense of the writing. 

It may be true that the fibres proceeding directly 
from the cerebrum do not themselves extend fur- 
ther than to these subordinate bodies, but content 
themselves with forming there the cells proper to 
them, from which again proceed the fibres which, 
form the organs of sense and motion ; so that 
the cerebrum may not receive sensations imme- 
diately from, nor act directly upon, the body, but 
may perform both functions mediately through 
the cells and the fibres of the optic thalami and 
the corpora striata, respectively. Yet even so the 



THE BRAIN. 



385 



secondary fibres are only modifications and exten- 
sions of the primary, and the effect is the same 
for most purposes as if the fibres were immedi- 
ately from the cerebrum ; the only difference being 
that, if the hypothesis be true, the cells of these 
subordinate lobes serve as repeating stations for 
both sensations and impulses, the operators in 
which stations are able to do of themselves, under 
the general control of the cerebrum, whatever it 
has taught them to do. 

All these lower nerve centres, important as they 
are, are subordinate to the great masses of the 
brain, called the cerebrum and the cerebellum. 
These chief organisms of the mind are informed 
of every act of their lieutenants, and the cause of 
the act, and have power to control and revise their 
action. In these great masses of the brain reside 
the conscious sense, the powers of attention, of 
reflection, of comparison or choice, of intention, 
and the human affection. And there are the first 
receptacles of life from above. 

The cerebrum is much the larger of the two, 



$S6 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

and occupies the whole of the upper part of the 
head ; the cerebellum lying under the hinder lobes 
of the cerebrum. The cerebrum is divided into 
two hemispheres, the right and the left, united by- 
masses of fibres at the base. The cerebellum, 
though having a right and a left which answer to 
each other, is not divided. Besides these most 
general distinctions, the brains, especially the cere- 
brum, are distinguished into lobes, and the lobes 
into convolutions of great intricacy and beauty, of 
which we shall have more to say presently. 

It has already been intimated that the cere- 
bellum has charge of the vital functions of the 
body, of which the reflecting mind is unconscious ; 
and that the cerebrum is the abode of the con- 
scious sense, effort, and thought. The sense of 
the cerebrum Swedenborg calls " voluntary " ; and 
that of the cerebellum "involuntary"; and of 
these he says : — 

" The voluntary sense belongs to the cerebrum, 
but the involuntary to the cerebellum. These two 
general senses are conjoined in man, but still dis- 



THE BRAIN. 



387 



tinct. The fibres which go forth from the cere- 
brum present in general the voluntary sense, and 
those from the cerebellum present in general the 
involuntary sense. The fibres of this two-fold 
origin conjoin themselves in the two appendices 
which are called the medulla oblongata and the 
medulla spinalis, and through them pass into the 
body, and fashion its members, viscera, and organs. 
The things which encompass the body, as the 
muscles and the skin, and also the organs of sense, 
for the most part receive fibres from the cerebrum ; 
from these man has sensations and also motions 
according to his will. But the things which are 
within that enclosure, and are called the viscera 
of the body, receive fibres from the cerebellum. 
Therefore man has no sense of them, nor are they 
under the control of his will." 

The cerebellum shares its control of many func- 
tions of the body with the cerebrum, during the 
hours of wakefulness ; but when the cerebrum 
sleeps, the cerebellum has sole charge. Dreams, 
therefore, flow in through the cerebellum, and 
from angels and spirits who belong to that prov- 
ince. After describing some dreams, pleasant and 
instructive, Swedenborg says: — 



3 88 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 

i( They are angelic spirits, who are on the con- 
fines of the paradisal abodes, who insinuate such 
dreams ; to whom also is assigned the duty of 
watching over certain men while they sleep, lest 
they should be infested by evil spirits. This duty 
they perform with the greatest delight, insomuch 
that there is an emulation among them who shall 
attend ; and they love to affect man with sweet and 
delightful things which they see in his affection 
and disposition. These angelic spirits are of those 
who in the life of the body have delighted and 
loved to make the life of others delightful, by 
every means and endeavor. When the sense of 
hearing is so far opened, there is heard as from afar 
a sweet modulation of sounds as of singing. They 
said that they do not know whence such things 
come to them ; and such beautiful and pleasant 
representatives ; but it was said that it was from 
heaven. They belong to the province of the cere- 
bellum ; because the cerebellum, as I have been 
instructed, is awake during sleep, while the cere- 
brum is asleep. The men of the Most Ancient 
Church had their dreams from thence, with a per- 
ception what they signified ; from which in great 
part came the representatives and significatives of 
the Ancients, under which things deeply hidden 
were set forth." (A. C. 1977.) 



THE BRAIN. 



389 



As has been said, in some parts of the body 
the voluntary fibres prevail, as in the organs of 
sense ; and in some the involuntary, as in the vis- 
cera ; but yet both kinds go everywhere ; for there 
is no part of the viscera which, in a state of 
disease, may not make its condition consciously 
felt by fibres of the cerebrum ; and there is no 
part of a muscle or a membrane which does not 
depend for the regulation of its nutrition upon the 
presence of fibres from the cerebellum. 

" The voluntary things," Swedenborg says, " con- 
tinually lead away from order, but the involuntary 
things continually lead back to order. Hence it is 
that the motion of the heart, which is involuntary, 
is altogether exempt from the will of man ; like- 
wise the action of the cerebellum ; and that the 
motion of the heart and the forces of the cere- 
bellum rule the voluntary things, lest these should 
break down beyond limits, and extinguish the life 
of the body before the time. Therefore the agents 
of both, as well the voluntary as the involuntary 
things, go forth in the whole body united." (A. C. 
9683. Similar things also in S. D. 5781.) 

The cerebellum is said to be the abode of the 



3 9 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



involuntary things, in the sense that its actions 
proceed without the consciousness and effort of 
man. But this is because they proceed from the 
love which is his life, of the affections of which 
he is unaware. The evil genii, who operate upon 
the cerebellum, are said to flow into the aflections, 
with the effort to turn them into evil lusts, care- 
fully avoiding the thoughts lest they should be 
perceived. (D. P. 310). The cerebellum, there- 
fore, like the heart, is the organ of the love or 
the will ; and the cerebrum, like the lungs, is re- 
lated to the understanding. Therefore the per- 
verse things also of man's love have their seat 
in the cerebellum ; and the cerebellum can be 
instructed, and freed from perversity, by the cere- 
brum, as the blood from the heart is purified by 
the lungs. 

A very simple matter illustrates the action of 
the cerebrum upon the cerebellum. It has been 
said that the cerebellum rules in the body at night 
while the cerebrum sleeps. But if, before going 
to sleep, the cerebrum fixes the hour for waking, 



THE BRAIN. 



39 1 



the cerebellum thus instructed awakes it at the 
time. 

It is possible to see in the character of the 
dreams a reflection of the natural tendencies of 
the will ; and to most people they reveal evil 
tendencies which certainly are not of their choice 
or intention, and yet they are real tendencies of 
the natural will, having their abode in correspond- 
ing forms of the cerebellum. And if, in the prep- 
aration for the night's sleep, besides the reading 
of the Word and prayer, which should bring pre- 
vailing good influences into the dreams, there 
should be also a distinct condemning of the evil 
tendencies and a warning of the soul against 
them, much might be done to make the dreams 
gentle and pure, and the sleep deeply refreshing. 

We read now-a-days of the experiments of 
French physicians in what is called " hypnotism/' 
or involuntary sleep, which is nearly or quite the 
same as mesmeric sleep. Hypnotized patients are 
not conscious of anything that is said to them, 
and remember nothing of it ; and yet they are 



392 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



deeply impressed by it, and will do in their natu- 
ral state, as by a natural impulse upon which they 
do not reflect, whatever they have been told in 
their sleep to do. Instances are related in which 
patients of violent temper and coarsest manners 
have -been instructed not to do the things which 
have been habitual to them, but to do good and 
gentle things instead, specifying particularly what 
is not to be done and what is to be done, with 
the result of transforming apparently the natural 
disposition of the subjects. Evil things also are 
taught and executed with equal readiness. Now, 
without delaying to inquire the possible effect of 
this in regeneration — remarking only that no one 
is ever condemned or saved by his hereditary 
character, nor by that which is impressed upon 
him without his own choice — we may draw this 
lesson : If while one's own cerebrum is quies- 
cent, another can so instruct and impress the 
organ of one's will or natural disposition, through 
the auditory nerves, one may do the same for 
himself — may chide himself for evil and warn 



THE BRAIN. 



393 



himself not to do it. Foreseeing times of temp- 
tation, he may resolutely instruct himself in what 
he is to do ; and when the time of trial comes he 
will find his natural disposition changing, and if 
he does not himself undo his own instructions, he 
will very likely go by in safety ; at least he will 
find his continued efforts much more effective in 
securing self-restraint. 

In studying the sense of hearing, we have seen 
that it has relation to obedience ; and it is inter- 
esting to remember that the nerves of the ears, 
besides their extension to their special convolu- 
tions of the cerebrum, send large branches di- 
rectly to the cerebellum, having thus a tendency 
to produce prompt and involuntary obedience, as 
well as voluntary. In listening to music, the effect 
upon the feelings, aside from any thinking, is an 
effect produced upon the cerebellum ; the thought 
about the words, or about the structure of the 
music, and even about its beauty of form, is in 
the cerebrum. 

There were some spirits, professedly Christian, 



394 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



but of evil life, who desired to enter heaven. 
Swedenborg relates that they were brought to the 
gates of a certain heavenly society, where they 
were examined by those whose duty it was to re- 
ceive new comers. 

"And they turned them about, and saw that the 
hinder parts of their heads were very hollow ; and 
then they said, ' Depart from here ; for you are in 
the enjoyment of the love of doing evil, and there- 
fore you are not conjoined to heaven ; for in your 
hearts you have denied God, and despised the things 
of religion.' . . . On the way home, we conversed 
about the cause that the occiputs of those who are 
in the enjoyment of doing evil are hollow. And 
I said that this is the cause : that man has two 
brains, one in the occiput, which is called the cere- 
bellum, and the other in the forehead, which is 
called the cerebrum ; and that the love of the will 
dwells in the cerebellum, and the thought of the 
understanding in the cerebrum ; and when the 
thought of a man's understanding does not lead 
the love of the will, the inmosts of the cerebellum, 
which in themselves are celestial, collapse, whence 
is the hollowness." (T. C. R. 160.) 

It may be supposed that the perverse exterior 



THE BRAIN. 



395 



forms of the cerebellum remained, and were recep- 
tive of evil influx ; but the interiors shrivelled 
away. That the same was not true of their cere- 
brums was because the understanding can be sep- 
arated from the will; and they could know and 
understand the things of religion and of heavenly 
life, though they did not believe and love them. 
How forcibly does this present the consequences 
of evil life in the very organism of the spirits of 
men ! They still receive from the Lord the ra- 
tionality and freedom that reside in the forehead ; 
they can still understand the truth, and for some 
external motive of honor or gain can compel them- 
selves to do it. But their ability really to love it 
is gone forever : they themselves have destroyed 
it.* 

The texture of the cerebrum also is affected by 
the mode of thinking, whether truly or falsely, 
spiritually or sensually ; and becomes orderly, soft, 



* Similar things are said of some spirits of the Dragon. (L. J. 
post p. 52.) 



396 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



and pellucid, or disorderly, hairy, callous, or bony, 
accordingly. Swedenborg relates that in the early 
period of his spiritual instruction there were felt 
hard places in the left part of his cerebrum, like 
rather large, hard nuclei, — 

" which," he says, "were affected with a dull or 
mute pain ; and it was said to me that it was per- 
ceived from the hardened spots that there were 
still things which were not truths of faith. Hence 
it appears that hardness actually exists in the or- 
ganic forms when there is not faith, and the greater 
the hardening the less conscience there is ; so that 
they who have no conscience after death have the 
brain outmostly hard." (S. D. 1623.) 

" Moreover, when I received only the literal 
sense of the Word, then the ways were closed to 
the understanding of interior things. And thus 
with those who only stick in the literal sense of the 
Word; the brains are hardened and enclosed, so 
that there is no way open to an inner sense, and 
still less to the inmost ; thus a crust is formed of 
external corporeal or sensual things glued together. 
It is otherwise when the way is opened to the 
sense of interior things, or to the spirit ; which 
way is opened by the Lord alone." (S. D. 1624.) 



THE BRAIN. 



397 



"The head of those who know and believe," we 
are informed, " appears as if human, and the brain 
orderly, white like snow, and lucid, for heavenly 
light is received by them." But the brains of some 
of the wicked, who believed they lived of them- 
selves, and refused to open their minds to the 
Lord, were found "rough, hairy, and dark." (A. 
C. 4319.) Not that the natural brain would so 
appear, but the spiritual brain when inspected by 
the angels after death. 

The function of the cerebellum, according to the 
common idea of modern physiologists, is chiefly to 
preserve the equilibrium of the body. And this 
idea is founded upon the observed fact that, in 
cases of injury to the cerebellum, an animal tum- 
bles about helplessly. The same is the case with 
man in less degree. After a time, however, the 
power of preserving the equilibrium is recovered 
in great degree, yet at the cost of close attention 
and much effort. It probably is true that animals 
walk, and perform many other actions, naturally, 
without much teaching, and mostly under the con- 



398 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



trol of the cerebellum. Man does the same to a 
much less extent. And when the cerebellum is 
destroyed, all such natural motion, except as it can 
be continued by the medulla oblongata, ceases ; 
and the actions can be continued only by the 
effort of the cerebrum. Man loses less of the 
power than animals, because he always moves 
less by nature, and depends more upon teaching. 
This part of the function of the cerebellum is 
more easily observed than the rest ; but a great 
want of vitality is noticeable in the performance 
of all the natural functions of the body. 

As the brain forms the body by means of its 
fibres, it also animates it. For the life that flows 
into the body to form it continues to flow in to 
keep it in the power to perform the functions for 
which it is formed. 

The life also animates the body in the same 
order in which it formed it. It flows into the cells 
of the brain immediately, and from them through 
the fibres into all the tissues of the body. After 
the body is formed, and the man assumes control 



THE BRAIN. 



399 



of it, his thought and affection are exercised in 
the cells of the brain, and according to the quality 
of this exercise is the quality of the animation of 
the body through them. Swedenborg states that 
the animating influence of the brain is exerted 
by means of a highly vitalized fluid which he 
calls "the animal spirits." And he says that one 
who does not believe in the existence of such an 
agency, stops in the beginning, and can know 
nothing of the operation of the spirit in the body. 
(S. D. 3459.) 

In the cells of the brain the spiritual and the 
natural substances of the mind meet. (Compare 
T. C. R. 38.) In thinking the truth, and willing 
what is good, the very substance of truth and 
goodness is secreted by the cells of the spiritual 
body, and in the cells of the natural brain is em- 
bodied in the pure fluids secreted from the capil- 
laries, and thence is sent through the fibres, inspir- 
ing every part of the body in the performance of 
its functions. And this vitalization is according 
to the quality of the thinking and willing, noble 



4-00 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



if these be noble, and vile if they be vile. From 
the body there is a return of the purer fluids to 
the brain, for re-secretion and new combinations, 
through the blood-vessels. (D. L. W. 316.) 

It is Swedenborg's view that not only are the 
tissues of the body vitalized directly by fibres 
from the brain, but the blood itself also receives 
its portion of spirit which is secreted in the ven- 
tricles of the brain, together with pure lymph with 
which it is combined, and impure serosities and 
adhesive fluids discharged from among the fibres, 
and from which the brain needs to free itself. 
These fluids, he says, are directed from the ven- 
tricles through the appropriate foramina to the 
infundibulum, under the pineal gland, and thence 
to the pituitary body, which is really a gland for 
compounding this vitalizing fluid for the blood, 
and separating from it the impurities. 

Of the correspondence of these functions with 
the heavens, Swedenborg has much to say: — 

"There were certain spirits above the head, a 
little in front, who spoke with me. They discoursed 



THE BRAIN. 



401 



pleasantly, and their influx was tolerably gentle. 
They were distinguished from others by this, that 
they had a continual eagerness and desire to come 
into heaven. It was said that they who have refer- 
ence to the ventricles or larger cavities of the 
brain, and belong to that province, are of this 
nature. The reason was also added : that the 
better kind of lymph which is therein is of such 
a nature, namely, as to return into the brain ; and 
hence also is in such an effort. The brain is 
heaven : the effort is eagerness and desire. Such 
are the correspondences." (A. C. 4049.) 

" There appeared to me a certain face over a 
blue window, which face presently betook itself 
within. There then appeared a little star about 
the region of the left eye ; afterwards many red 
stars with a white sparkle. Next appeared to me 
walls, but no roof, the walls only on the left side : 
lastly, as it were the starry heaven. But whereas 
these things were seen in a place where evil spirits 
were, I imagined that it was something foul which 
was presented me to see. Presently, however, the 
wall and the heaven disappeared ; and I saw a well, 
out of which came forth, as it were, a bright mist 
or vapor ; it seemed also as if something were 
pumped out of the well. I inquired what these 
things signified or represented. It was said that 



402 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES, 



it was a representation of the infundibulum in the 
brain, over which was the cerebrum, which is signi- 
fied by heaven ; and what was next seen was that 
vessel, which is signified by a well, and is called 
the infundibulum ; and that the mist or vapor 
which arose thence was the lymph which passes 
through, and is pumped out thence ; and that this 
lymph is of a two-fold kind, namely, what is mixed 
with animal spirits, which is among the useful 
lymphs, and what is mixed with serosities, which 
is among the excrementitious lymphs. It was 
afterwards shown me of what quality those are 
who belong to this province ; but only those who 
were of the viler sort. They were also seen. 
They run about hither and thither, apply them- 
selves to those whom they see, attend to every 
particular, and tell others what they hear ; prone 
to suspicion, impatient, restless, in imitation of 
that lymph which is therein, and is conveyed to 
and fro. Their reasonings are the fluids there 
which they represent. These, however, are of the 
middle sort ; but they who have reference to the 
excrementitious lymphs therein, are such as draw 
down spiritual truths to things terrestrial, and 
there defile them ; as, for instance, when they 
hear anything about marriage love, they apply it 
to whoredoms and adulteries, and thus drag down 



THE BRAI'N. 



403 



to these the things which belong to marriage love ; 
and so in other cases." (A. C. 4050.) 

These descriptions seem all to be taken from 
the Christian heaven before the Last Judgment, 
thus during the process of its formation and puri- 
fication from evil spirits. The Ancient heavens 
would be described very differently, and likewise 
the Christian heav.en now that it is in order. 

In the Diary we read of those mentioned above 
as being in the ventricles of the brain, and desir- 
ing to enter heaven : — 

"They knew not that they had been in heaven, 
and had been removed from it that they might be 
the better perfected, and so return into heaven 
when hetrogeneous things had been cast out from 
them ; altogether as it is with that serosity in the 
ventricles, a part of which is absorbed by the cho- 
roid plexus, as a part also is cast out from it, a part 
is exhaled from elsewhere, a part passes through 
the third ventricle under the pineal gland, and so 
through the infundibulum towards the pituitary 
body, where it is separated by three ways, and is 
carried thence by various passages, canals, and 
sinuses towards the jugular vein, that it may meet 



4 04 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



the chyle coming up through the thoracic duct, 
and they may there be consociated, and borne 
towards the heart, and thence into the lungs, and 
back to the left ventricle, and then onwards, a part 
towards the head through the carotids, a part down- 
wards through all the viscera of the body ; and all 
for the end that a purer blood or animal spirit may 
be formed, and thus the red blood, in order that 
material things may be united with spiritual and 
live one life." (n. 831. So also in n. 914.) 

Certain spirits are described, — deformed, cruel, 
and beastly, — who correspond to foul and poison- 
ous humors in the brain, and also to deadly tumors. 
And it is said that "such are they who slew whole 
armies in the old times, as it is written in the 
Word ; for they rushed into the chambers of the 
brain in every one, and inspired terror, together 
with such insanity that they slew one another." 
(A. C. 5717) 

Others who are like the gross phlegm of the 
brain, and produce obstructions, dulness, and many 
diseases, are described as totally void of con- 
science, and placing "human prudence and wis- 



THE BRAIN. 



405 



dom in exciting enmities, hatreds, and intestine 
combats, for the sake of ruling." (A. C. 5718.) 
And still others are described who cause various 
disorders. (See A. C. 5386, 5724; S. D. 1783, 

I793-) 

It seems strange to think of spirits so perverse 
as having access to so interior a province of the 
heavens. Probably it would be impossible now ; 
but before the Last Judgment there were many 
evil persons penetrating even to the higher parts 
of the Christian heaven, and causing much dis- 
turbance. In the higher heavens, and probably 
in the Christian heaven now, instead of such evil 
spirits we might find angels who have some mor- 
bidness or sluggishness to get rid of, and are there 
subjected to some purifying processes correspond- 
ing to those by which evil spirits were separated. 

A view of the brain, to one who looks upon it 
with the reverence which is its due, excites a feel- 
ing of awe, arising from the sense of deep mys- 
tery, and also of wonderful, if as yet unintelli- 
gible, beauty, Swedenborg says : — 



4 o6 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

" When the skull and the integuments about the 
brain are removed, there appear wonderful circum- 
volutions and gyri, in which are disposed the sub- 
stances that are called cortical. From these run 
forth the fibres which constitute the medulla of 
the brain. These fibres proceed thence through 
the nerves into the body, and there perform func- 
tions according to the command and will of the 
brain. All these things are altogether according 
to the heavenly form ; for such a form is im- 
pressed upon the heavens by the Lord, and thence 
also upon the things which are in man, and espe- 
cially upon his cerebrum and cerebellum." (A. C. 
4040.) 

The exact purpose or distribution of functions, 
of these wonderful convolutions, is not perfectly 
known ; yet it is possible to obtain a general view 
of them which is to be trusted in the main. We 
have seen that the cerebellum is the organ of the 
love which is the life of the mind, the seat of its 
natural affections, and the means by which the 
organs performing the vital functions in the body 
are animated and controlled. And in general we 
have learned that the cerebrum is the habitation 



THE BRAIN. 



407 



of the conscious mind, to which the sensations 
that come to consciousness are reported, and by 
which the voluntary actions are controlled. 

The cerebrum is divided into two hemispheres. 
To the right hemisphere, we are taught, they 
correspond " who are in the will of good, and 
thence in the will of truth ; but they who corre- 
spond to the left part of the brain are those who 
are in the understanding of good and truth, and 
thence in affection for them." (A. C. 4052.) 

Besides this division into hemispheres, the whole 
cerebrum may be thought of in general as divided 
into regions of conscious sense and regions of 
action ; the regions of sense lying in the hinder 
and lower part of the cerebrum, and the region 
of action somewhat overlying this towards the 
front, and occupying the whole of the lobes imme- 
diately above the temples. In front of these, both 
in animals and in men, are the convolutions in 
which resides the faculty of attention and intelli- 
gence ; by which animals as well as men can be 
instructed to some extent, and learn to do things 



4 o8 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

contrary to their natural inclinations, yet, in the 
case of animals, under the stimulus of other natu- 
ral motives. And in the extreme front, furthest 
removed from the ultimates of sense and action 
— looking down upon all the impressions of sense, 
the natural desires, the acquired knowledge, with 
power to rule and control them all, with power 
also to abstract itself from these, and to appre- 
ciate not only abstract qualities, such as warmth 
and color, but also spiritual qualities of affection 
and wisdom — reside the human faculties of ra- 
tionality and freedom. 

In the area obliquely upward and backward from 
the ears, devoted to the perceptions of sensations, 
we have a simple arrangement of the convolutions, 
proceeding from below upward in the natural 
sequence of the senses from voluntary to intel- 
lectual. In the large convolutions in the base of 
the cerebrum, under the great ventricles, resides 
the sense of touch ; and proceeding thence up- 
ward behind the line of the ears, and backward, 
we have successively the convolutions devoted 



THE BRAIN. 409 



respectively to taste, smell, hearing, and sight, 
the last much more extensive than the others. 

No doubt, besides the direct communication of 
fibres from these several convolutions to their 
respective organs of sense, there is indirect com- 
munication with other parts of the brain, the great 
mass of white substance indicating that there 
is a multitude of fibres forming a means of inter- 
communication among all parts of the cerebrum, 
and especially between all other parts and the 
frontal lobes ; yet the conscious perception of sen- 
sations seems limited to their special convolutions. 

Above and in front of the area of sight, lie 
the convolutions which control the movements of 
the legs ; then over the ears and somewhat for- 
ward, those that move the arms ; in the upper 
part of the frontal convolutions is now the con- 
trol of the face ; and in the lower part, just above 
the temples, lies the faculty of speech. 

This relative position of organs of sense and 
organs of motion is continued in the lower nerve- 
centres ; for the corpora striata, through which 



4io 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



pass the nerves of motion, lie below the convo- 
lutions of motion, and the optic thalami behind 
them, under the convolutions of sense. In the 
spinal medulla also, the columns of sensory fibres 
lie in the rear, and those of motor fibres in front ; 
and these are attended by columns of fibres from 
the cerebellum accompanying them both at the 
sides, and running everywhere with them. 
Through the fibres, as Swedenborg says, — 

"the mind, when it is in its thought from the 
understanding, and affection from the will, has 
extension into all things of the whole body, and 
there spreads itself throughout their forms, as do 
the thoughts and affections of the angels into the 
societies of the whole heaven. The case is similar, 
because all things of the human body correspond 
to all things of heaven ; wherefore the form of the 
whole heaven before the Lord is the human form." 
(A. E. 775.) 

Many things are said of the correspondence of 
the brain with the heavens, and of the influx of 
the heavens into the brain, which will help fill out 
and make clear the whole subject. 



THE BRAIN. 4II 



The angels who correspond to the enclosing 
membranes of the brain, like those relating to 
other covering membranes of the body, are in a 
passive state, speaking not from themselves, but 
from others, and thus serving as conjoining me- 
diums, and for protection. 

They who constitute the dura mater, — 

"were such as during their life as men thought 
nothing of spiritual and heavenly things, nor spake 
about them, because they believed only in what 
was natural, and this because they could not pene- 
trate further ; nevertheless they did not confess 
this. They still, like others, worshipped the Di- 
vine, had stated times for prayer, and were good 
citizens." 

Among those who — 

" had reference to the outer layer of the dura mater 
. . . were such as thought about spiritual and 
heavenly things only from such things as are ob- 
jects of the external senses, comprehending more 
interior things in no other way. They were heard 
by me as of the female sex. They who reason 
from external sensuals, hence from things worldly 
and corporeal, concerning those which are of 



412 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



heaven and the spiritual things of faith and love, 
the more they unite and confound those things, go 
outward even to the external skin of the head, 
which they represent ; but still they are within 
the Greatest Man, although in its extremes, if they 
have lived a good life ; for every one who is in 
good life from affection of charity is saved." (A. 
C. 4046.) 

Those of the pia mater, — 

"were as they had been in the world, not trusting 
much to their own thought, and thereby setting 
themselves to think anything certain on holy 
things, but depending on the faith of others, and 
not considering whether a thing was true. That 
this was their quality was also shown me by an 
influx of their perception into the Lord's Prayer 
when I was reading it ; for all spirits and angels, 
however many they may be, may be known as to 
their quality from the Lord's Prayer, and this by 
an influx of the ideas of their thought into the 
contents of the Prayer. From this it was per- 
ceived that such was their character, and moreover 
that they could serve the angels as intermedi- 
ates ; for there are spirits intermediate between the 
heavens, by whom there is communication ; for 
their ideas were not closed, but easily opened ; 



THE BRAIN, 



413 



thus they suffered themselves to be acted upon, 
and readily admitted and received the influx. They 
were also modest and peaceful, and said they were 
in heaven." (A. C. 4047.) 

The sinuses of the brain are large vessels for 
receiving the venous blood, and are situated in 
safe and quiet places, where they can relieve the 
brain of the surplus blood, without themselves 
partaking in any great degree of its active mo- 
tions. 

" There was a certain spirit near my head," 
Swedenborg writes, "who spoke with me. I per- 
ceived from the tone of his voice that he was in a 
state of tranquillity, as of a kind of peaceful sleep. 
He asked this thing and that, but with such pru- 
dence that a person awake could not have asked 
more prudently. It was perceived that interior 
angels spoke by him, and that he was in such a 
state as to perceive and bring forth what they 
spoke. I asked about that state, and told him that 
it was such. He replied that he spoke nothing 
but what was good and true ; and that he perceived 
whether anything else flowed in, and if it did he 
did not admit or utter it. Of his state he said 



414 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



that it was peaceful ; and it was given me to per- 
ceive it by communication. It was said that they 
are such who have reference to the sinuses or 
larger blood-vessels of the brain ; and that they 
who are like him have reference to the longitu- 
dinal sinus, which is between the hemispheres of 
the cerebrum, and are there in a state of peace, 
however the brain on both sides be in a state of 
tumult." (A. C. 4048.) 

The cells, or glands, which constitute the corti- 
cal substance of the brain, Swedenborg says, are 
innumerable ; and he adds : — 

"The multitude of these glands may ... be 
compared to the multitude of angelic societies in 
the heavens, which also are innumerable, and in 
the same order (as was told me) as the glands ; 
and the multitude of fibrillae proceeding from these 
glands may be compared to spiritual truths and 
goods, that in like manner flow from the societies 
like rays." (D. L. W. 366.) 

"They who are in the principles of good relate 
to those things in the brain which are the first 
beginnings there, and are called the glands, or 
cortical substances ; but they who are in the prin- 
ciples of truth relate to those things which flow 



THE BRAIN. 4I g 



from those first beginnings, and are called the 
fibres." (A. C. 4052.) 

"The brain, like heaven, is in the sphere of 
ends, which are uses ; for whatever flows in from 
the Lord is an end regarding the salvation of the 
human race. This end is what reigns in heaven, 
and also what reigns thence in the brain ; for the 
brain, where is man's mind, regards ends in the 
body, namely, that the body may serve the soul, in 
order that the soul may be happy forever." (A. C. 
4054.) 

In regard to the influx from the heavens into 
the brain, we read in "Heaven and Hell": — 

"The influx of the Lord Himself with man is 
into his forehead, and thence into the whole face, 
since the forehead of man corresponds to love 
and the face corresponds to all the interiors. The 
influx of the spiritual angels with man is into his 
head everywhere, from the forehead and temples 
to every part under which is the cerebrum, because 
that region of the head corresponds to intelligence. 
But the influx of the celestial angels is into that 
part of the head in which is the cerebellum, and 
which is called the occiput, from the ears all around 
even to the neck ; for that region corresponds to 
wisdom." (n. 251.) 



4I 6 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 

In A. E. 61, we read as follows : — 

"The Divine Influx from heaven is into man's 
will, and through the will into his understanding. 
Influx into the will is into the occiput, because 
into the cerebellum, and from this it passes to 
the forward parts into the cerebrum, where is the 
understanding; and when it comes by that way 
into the understanding, it then comes also into the 
sight, for man sees from his understanding." 

And again : — 

" All good is received from behind, and all truth 
from in front, since the cerebellum is formed to 
receive good which is of the will, and the cerebrum 
to receive truth which is of the understanding." 
(n. 316.) 

To understand these things we must remember 
that the relation of the cerebellum to the cere- 
brum is like that of the heart to the lungs ; that 
the cerebellum causes the cerebrum to be formed 
and nourished, as the heart does the lungs ; and 
then, as the blood of the heart is purified by 
means of the lungs, so the affections of the cere- 
bellum may be purified by the truth perceived 



THE BRAIN. 4I? 



and willed by the cerebrum ; and that in this fac- 
ulty of perceiving and willing the truth that puri- 
fies the life's love, consists the true rationality and 
freedom in which the Lord resides in man ; which 
faculty lies in the forehead, and is that which 
knows and acknowledges the Lord, and causes 
the whole of the man to submit to His influence : 
and further, as in the case of the heart and the 
lungs, if the love in the cerebellum is not purified 
by the thought of the cerebrum, it compels the 
cerebrum to think only the evil and false things 
that agree with its own perversity. (Compare D. 
L. W. 413-425.) In this case, the interiors of 
the cerebellum are destroyed, but the freedom and 
rationality still remain, for they are the Lord's in 
man, and are never destroyed or taken away. (D. 
L. W. 425.) But in case the love is purified by 
the truth, then the Lord flows into the will's love, 
and through this continually incites the under- 
standing to learn more of the ennobling truth. 

"The angels of the inmost heaven," we read, 
" correspond to those things in man which belong 



4i* 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



to the provinces of the heart and the cerebellum ; 
but the angels of the middle heaven correspond 
to those things in man which belong to the prov- 
inces of the lungs and the cerebrum. . . . But to 
intermediate angels who are near to both heavens, 
and conjoin them, correspond the cardiac and pul- 
monary plexuses, by which the heart is conjoined 
with the lungs ; also the medulla oblongata, where 
the fibre of the cerebellum is conjoined with the 
fibre of the cerebrum." (A. C. 9670.) 

We are told also that the gentle, interior, and 
sincere spirits from the planet Mars, who are in 
thought from affection and in the affection of 
thought, relate to " that middle province which is 
between the cerebrum and the cerebellum." 

" And because they have such a relation in the 
Greatest Man, that middle province which is be- 
tween the cerebrum and the cerebellum corre- 
sponds to them ; for in them the cerebrum and 
cerebellum are conjoined as to spiritual opera- 
tions ; their face makes one with their thought, so 
that from the face the very affection of thought 
shines forth, and from the affection, with some 
indications also from the eyes, the general nature 
of the thought. Wherefore, when they were near 



THE BRAIN. 41 g 



me, I sensibly perceived a drawing back of the 
front part of the head towards the occiput, thus of 
the cerebrum towards the cerebellum." (A. C. 

7481.) 

A most interesting account is given, in A. C. 
n. 4326, of the operation of the two brains upon 
the expression of the face, in the Most Ancient 
times and afterwards : — 

14 There was heard a gentle thundering, which 
flowed down from on high above the occiput, and 
continued about the whole region of it. I won- 
dered who they were. It was told me that they 
were those who relate to the general involuntary 
feeling. And it was further said that they can 
perceive well a man's thoughts, but are not willing 
to set them forth and utter them ; like the cere- 
bellum, which perceives all that which the cere- 
brum perceives, but does not publish it. When 
their manifest operation into the whole province 
of the occiput ceased, it was shown how far their 
operation had extended. It was first determined 
to the whole face, then it withdrew itself towards 
the left part of the face, and lastly towards the ear 
there ; by which was signified of what nature the 
operation of the general involuntary feeling had 



420 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



been from the earliest times with the men of our 
earth, and how it had changed. The influx from 
the cerebellum insinuates itself chiefly into the 
face, as is manifest from this, that the disposition 
is inscribed on the face, and that the affections 
appear in the face, and this for the most part with- 
out man's will, — as is the case with fear, awe, 
shame, various kinds of joy and also of sorrow; 
besides other things which thus are made known 
to another ; so that he knows from the face what 
affections and what changes of the feelings and of 
the mind there are. These are from the cerebel- 
lum by means of its fibres, when there is no simu- 
lation within. Thus it was shown that the general 
feeling in the earliest times, or with the Most 
Ancient people, occupied the whole face ; and that 
successively after those times it occupied only the 
left part of it, and finally afterwards it spread itself 
outside of the face, so that at this day there is 
scarcely any general involuntary feeling remaining 
in the face. The right part of the face, with the 
right eye, corresponds to affection for good ; but 
the left to affection for truth ; and the region where 
the ear is, to obedience only without affection. 
For with the Most Ancient people — whose age was 
called the Golden Age, because they lived in a cer- 
tain state of integrity, and in love to the Lord and 



THE BRAIN. 



421 



mutual love, like the angels — all the involuntary 
feeling of the cerebellum was manifested in the 
face ; and then they did not know how to present 
anything else in the face than according as heaven 
flowed into the involuntary efforts, and thence into 
the will. But with the Ancients, whose age was 
called the Silver Age, because they were in a 
state of truth, and thence in charity towards the 
neighbor, the involuntary feeling of the cerebel- 
lum was manifested, not in the right part of the 
face, bat only in the left ; and with their posterity — 
whose time was called the Iron Age, because they 
lived not in affection for truth, but in obedience to 
truth — the involuntary feeling was no longer mani- 
fested in the face, but betook itself to the region 
about the left ear. I have been instructed that 
the fibres of the cerebellum thus changed their 
distribution in the face, and that in their place 
fibres of the cerebrum were carried thither, which 
then rule over those from the cerebellum ; and this 
from an effort to form the expression of the face 
according to one's own will, which is from the 
cerebrum. It does not appear to man that these 
things are so, but it is very manifest to the angels 
from the influx of heaven, and from correspond- 
ence." (A. C. 4326.) 

We read also of another remarkable change : — 



422 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 



" The Most Ancient people, who constituted the 
Lord's Celestial Church, had a will in which was 
good, and an understanding in which was truth 
thence, which two made one in them. But the 
Ancients, who formed the Lord's Spiritual Church, 
had a will altogether corrupt, but a sound under- 
standing, in which the Lord formed by regenera- 
tion a new will, and through this also a new under- 
standing." (A. C. 4328.) 

The change that thus took place, suggests a 
possible explanation of the curious fact that the 
fibres that pass from the head to the body are 
crossed in the medullae, so that the fibres from 
the right side of the head rule in. the left side of 
the body, and those from the left side of the head 
in the right side of the body. And yet Sweden- 
borg, though he mentions the fact in the Diary 
(nos. 1666, 1667), still in his published works refers 
the right side of the head and of the body alike 
to the love of good, and the left side to the love 
of truth. The body is spiritual relatively to the 
head ; and the position of the Ancient Church, 
relatively to that of the Most Ancient, is some- 



THE BRAIN. 423 



times likened to that of the body to the head. 
Now, if the right side of the head may be regarded 
as representing the will of good and truth in the 
Most Ancient Church, and this will was so cor- 
rupt in the Ancient that a new will must be 
formed by means of the understanding, the influx 
of the will of good and truth from the Most 
Ancient into the Ancient must have been into 
the understanding, and thence into the new will; 
and when this was done, then there could be in- 
flux from the understanding of good and truth 
into the new will. In the head the will to do 
good leads, the will to understand follows ; but 
in the body the will to understand leads, and re- 
ceives influx from the leading faculty of the head, 
and the will to do follows, and receives influx from 
the faculty that follows in the head. The will to 
do, as it descends, must become the will to under- 
stand for the sake of doing ; and the will to 
understand, as it descends, must become the will 
of doing for the sake of the understanding. It 
may have something to do with this, that the 



424 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



primary principle in the Most Ancient Church 
was love to the Lord, and the secondary mutual 
love ; and the primary in the Ancient Church was 
charity to the neighbor, and the secondary was 
the faith of charity. Also, that in the changes 
of state of the angels, in the most external state 
of the celestial angels, their sun passes over to 
the left, and adds its lustre to that of the moon 
of the spiritual angels, which then is in its great- 
est brightness. 

Ends of good, we have learned, prevail in the 
province of the brain of the heavens ; that is, the 
Divine ends for the salvation of the human race. 
The angels of this heaven " have extension into 
the whole heaven" (H. H. 49); that is, they per- 
ceive the states of all in heaven — their states as 
to love and thought. And by the influx of affec- 
tion and light — also sometimes by representatives, 
and through intermediate angels, and sometimes 
by angels sent down from their own societies — 
they inspire and instruct. 

The influx of the angels of the cerebellum, like 



THE BRAIN. 



425 



that of this organ in the body, is a silent influx 
of the love for the Lord and for doing His will, 
which is the life of the heavens. They perceive 
the states of the whole heaven as to the reception 
of life from the Lord, and the mutual usefulness 
which is the effect of that life. They control the 
whole process of receiving, sorting, and training 
the new spirits from the earths, and preparing 
them for heaven. They act mediately through 
others, and not without association with those of 
the cerebrum ; but their sense of the need of the 
heavens, and of what is in harmony with its life, 
governs the whole process. The opening of the 
understandings of the angelic spirits in the prov- 
ince of the lungs, is partly under the influence 
of angels of the cerebrum ; but the final sending 
forth from the heart of the heavens, with the full 
inspiration to do all possible good, is from the 
impulse of the cerebellum. 

From their sense of the state of the whole 
heaven as to its reception of the Lord, they not 
only train and assimilate new spirits — as it were 



426 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

for the nourishment of every part of the heavens — 
but they also gather into themselves the sense of 
need for further uses, and of preparation for new 
forms of reception of the Divine Wisdom and 
Goodness ; and this they have from their sense of 
the Lord's love for uses not yet fully performed. 
And the life which they receive from the Lord, 
with this sense of what It would do, they impart 
to the angels of the province of generation, whose 
delight it is to assist in preparing receptacles for 
the Divine life. Thus these angels preside over 
the reception of the Divine life in the heavens, 
and the perfecting of the states of reception. 

They flow also in man into all the functions of 
natural life which take place according to corre- 
spondence with the heavens, and this they do by 
influx into his cerebellum. They preside also over 
his sleep, contribute to the renovation and refresh- 
ment of sleep, and are in the effort to give sweet 
and helpful dreams. (A. C. 1977.) To the Most 
Ancient Church, whose affections were innocent, 
such dreams were always given, and by them they 



THE BRAIN. 427 



were instructed in the general things that they 
needed for the perfecting of their lives. (A. C. 
1122.) 

To the province of the cerebrum, which pre- 
sides over the voluntary sense of the heavens, 
belongs the duty of attending, not to the states 
of life, but to the states of thought and inten- 
tion of all parts of the heavens, and to their actual 
experiences. It is a part of their duty to attend 
to and interpret the representatives by which the 
Lord would instruct the heavens through the 
angels of the eyes. It is their duty to attend to 
the states of thought, intelligence, and intention 
of angels throughout the heavens, and of men on 
earth — for the Church also is a part of the Greatest 
Man — and to communicate the truth which the 
Lord reveals to them for the continual improve- 
ment of His kingdom, according to the states of 
reception in all. Even the angels of life in the 
cerebellum are instructed by the cerebrum through 
intermediates (H. H. 225; A. E. 831), and by 
such instruction their perception of life from the 



428 PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 

Lord is made more intelligent ; they are helped 
to perceive what they had not perceived, to under- 
stand what had been obscure to them, and thus 
to impart a nobler life to the heavens. 

Examples of the presence of angels of the brain 
in lower provinces, we have in the many Relations 
which represent angels of the third heaven as 
presiding over the deliberations of the assembled 
spirits, and receiving their conclusions. (See T. 
C. R. 48, 162, 188.) 

Of the use of their constant presence and in- 
fluence in other parts of the heavens, we have 
the following interesting instruction: — 

" All the wisdom of angels is given by means 
of the Word, since in its internal and inmost sense 
is Divine wisdom which is communicated to the 
angels through the Word when this is read by 
men, and when they think upon it. But still it 
is to be known that wisdom is given to them 
mediately by angels who were from the Most 
Ancient and Ancient Churches, who were in a 
knowledge and perception of representatives and 
correspondences ; these were such in the world 



THE BRAIN. 429 



that they knew the internal arcana of the Church, 
and correspondences, and by means of these wis- 
dom is communicated, and when it is communi- 
cated it appears to those who receive it as if it 
were their own. This is the effect of communi- 
cation ; and therefore angels of the Most Ancient 
heavens are dispersed throughout the heavens, that 
others may have wisdom. " (S. D. 5187; see also 
5188, 5189, 5194.) 

This presence is like the presence of the brain 
by means of the nerves in every part of the body. 
Besides the personal presence, there is abundant 
instruction by representatives and by influx.* 

The societies of the cerebrum are, of course, 
arranged in correspondence with the heavenly 
form of the brain itself. In the hinder part are 
societies that correspond with the convolutions of 
sense. It is their duty to observe and perceive 
and record all things in the state of all parts of 
the Greatest Man that have relation or corre- 
spondence with the senses, — the quality of new 



* See A. E. 260, 369, 490; A. C. 1971, 9125, 9139, 9166, 9457, 
9577- 



43° 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPOXDEXCES. 



spirits, as perceived through the angels of the 
tongue and the nose ; the quality of the lives of 
men on the earth also, as perceived through smell 
and sight and touch and hearing; the state of all 
parts of the heavens also, as manifested to the 
senses ; the representatives given by the Lord to 
the transparent provinces of the eyes, with the 
beautiful representatives which are presented to 
the inmost heaven by the Lord when men upon 
the earth are reading the Word ; also, perhaps, 
the spoken words of the Lord. All these impres- 
sions it is their duty and their delight to receive 
and treasure for the general use. 

In the middle and forward part are the societies 
whose duty it is to direct the voluntary action of 
the muscles — the motions of the hands and the 
feet in their cooperation with the Lord's Provi- 
dence in the care of men and spirits and angels ; 
the motions of the head and the eyes ; and all 
other voluntary motions requisite to the proper 
performance of the duties of the several prov- 
inces. 



THE BRAIN. 



43 1 



And in the extreme front are societies which, 
more than all others, perceive intelligently the 
relation of the heavens to the Lord — their entire 
dependence upon Him, yet their absolute freedom ; 
their nothingness in themselves ; their possibili- 
ties of infinite development into His image and 
likeness, by learning and doing His will, receiving 
His wisdom and His love which are Himself. To 
these societies it is given to interpret the impres- 
sions of sense, which the angels of the provinces 
of sense communicate to them by intermediates; 
to understand and interpret the representatives 
by which the Lord instructs them; to reflect upon 
all things relating to the state of the heavens in 
the light of the Lord's own teaching; to instruct 
the angels who control the action of the heavens 
as to what should be clone, the angels of the 
provinces of sense as to what they should ob- 
serve, and the angels of the love which is the 
life of the heavens as to the ends which the Lord 
sets before them, and thus as to the quality of the 
love which is flowing: from Him to them. 



43 2 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. 



Through these provinces of the forehead, there- 
fore, the Lord unites Himself with the whole 
heaven, and under their guidance the whole 
heaven unites itself with the Lord. 



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